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Court jails two for laundering $359m drug money
Ozor IKenna and Ogbo Emmanuel Obiora, have been convicted by a Lagos Federal High Court, for laundering the sum of $196, 883.740 USD and $162, 883.740 million, said to be money to be proceeds of illicit drug.
The two men, were convicted and sentenced to a total of seven years imprisonment each, by Justice Ayokunle Faji.
The convicts were given the jail-term, after the judge found them guilty of charges of conspiracy and money laundering following a suit against them by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
The two convicts according to the prosecutor, Mr. Abu Ibrahim, committed the offences sometimes between 2014 and 2015.
Abu had told the court that the first convict, Ikanna, was arrested with the sum of $34, 000, USD, on September 9, 2015, during the outward clearance of Etihad Airline flight to Brazil, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.
Abu also told the court that the second convict, Obiora, had between the months of February 2014 October 2015, collaborated with one Chinedu (now at large) and concealed or the sum of N128, 883, 740 million, in his Diamond Bank account number 0042824083.
He told the court that the convicts had laundered the money for some drug barons, who resides outside the country.
The prosecutor had told the court that the offences committed by the two convicts, contravened sections 15(1)(b); 2(5) and 16(a) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended), and punishable under the same Act.
During the convicts’ trial, the prosecutor several witnesses as well as tendered exhibits, which includes the convicts’ confessional statements, the recovered monies and others, which were admitted by the court.
The convicts denied the charges and pleaded not guilty to all the counts.
Delivering judgment on the charges, Justice Faji held that the prosecution have successfully proved the charges against the convicts beyond reasonable doubt.
Justice Faji consequently sentenced the convicts to five years on count one and two years on counts two and three.
The judge ruled that the jail terms to run concurrently and to commenced from May 20, 2022, when they were first arraigned before the court.
