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.
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