Money Laundering: Return to Court to Get Justice, Group Urges Igbinedion

Money Laundering: Return to Court to Get Justice, Group Urges Igbinedion

The conviction of Michael Igbinedion for money laundering on April 29,

2015, at a Federal High Court Benin City, Edo State, presided over by Justice A.M Liman, is again raising both legal and jurisprudential controversies.

Igbinedion was consequently sentenced and asked to pay a fine of

N1 million in each of the counts in default of which he shall serve a prison sentence of two years on each of the said counts.

But following recent reports that even members of the Public Accounts Committees in the seventh National Assembly, statutorily responsible for ensuring probity and accountability in the nation’s financial system allegedly compromised the Money Laundering Act during their tenure, a group in Benin City, known as Equity Group (EG) has therefore advised Igbinedion to go back to court to get proper justice.

The National Assembly report has it that members of the committee as well

as their representatives reportedly withdrew money totaling about N226million even in the face of the money laundering law.

The group, speaking through it head, Pastor Pascal Oboh in a statement, said: “Since the action of members of the committee was not seen as a violation of the money laundering law, one stands to reason that Igbinedion’s conviction may have been politically motivated.”

The group posited that the conviction was enough damage to the spirit of

Section 1 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2004 hereinafter referred to as MLPA even as he further said it was imperative to understand the spirit and philosophy behind the MLPA both in our

domestic law and globally.

EG, while condemning the prison sentence, called for a review for the fact that: “Igbinedion acted as the Personal Assistant to Lucky Igbinedion who was then the Governor of Edo State from 2001 to 2006. That as a personal assistant to the governor, part of his duties was to run errands for the governor and also collect

on behalf of the governor his due entitlements, allowances, gratuities and other sundry funds meant for the office of the governor.

“That between 2002 and 2006, Michael Igbinedion did collect cash payment from the cashier of the state Government House on behalf of his principal totaling

N13, 309,000 which sum was duly appropriated.

 “It is also not in doubt from the evidence that Michael Igbinedion was not tried for any offence that he committed in his personal capacity but was prosecuted in his official capacity as the personal assistant to the then state governor for official activities

carried out at all times material to the

proceedings in the trial court.”

The group further stated that: “All the prosecution witnesses admitted without equivocation that the funds which constitute the subject matter of the charge were not generated from the illegal and unlawful dealings or illicit traffic in narcotic drugs, human trafficking, terrorism and psychotropic substances, and that the release of each of the funds listed in the counts was done genuinely and legally.

“It is therefore our considered view that it is impossible to launder official funds in execution of official duties.

"It is curious that the trial court failed to take advantage of the provision of Section 112 of the Evidence

Act to take judicial notice of

Vanguard Newspaper of July 6, 2014.”

The group however said the charges ought to have been dismissed if the trial judge had turned his mind to the meaning

of the word payment used in the

MLPA.