FG Amends Charges Against Justice Ngwuta

The Federal Government on Tuesday again amended the corruption charges it preferred against a Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, before a Federal High Court in Abuja.
Three amendments have now been done to the charges originally filed in December 2016.

Shortly after the lead prosecuting counsel, Mrs. Olufemi Fatunde, announced the latest development to the court on Tuesday, the amended charges were read to the defendant, who pleaded not guilty to all the 13 counts.

The amended charges have only one additional count. The additional count was earlier removed in the previous amendment done in March this year. The re-introduced count has to do with the allegation that Justice Ngwuta gave false information to the Nigerian Immigration Service concerning his diplomatic passport with the purpose of procuring another one.

Other charges, including money laundering allegations of retention and concealment of various sums of money in local and foreign currencies, allegedly recovered from him during the raid of the operatives of the Department of State Service on October 8, 2016, remained part of the amended charges.

He was also accused, as contained in the previous charges, of giving various cash sums of money above the statutory threshold to his building contractor for the building of various houses in his home state, Ebonyi State, without going through a financial institution.