“A serving judge can’t be prosecuted” – Supreme Court Justice, Ngwuta set free of corruption charges
Justice Sylvester Ngwuta has been absolved of all corruption charges.
The Federal High Court led by the trial judge, Justice John Tsoho, made the judgement on Friday (today).
Tsoho ruled that the pre-conditions for instituting charges against a judicial officer were not met before charging Ngwuta.
Ngwuta was one of judicial officers accused of laundering money when DSS raided his apartment in October 2016. DSS had found N35 million at the judge’s residence.
He was facing 13 counts charge bordering on money laundering and passport fraud.
Justice Tsoho’s ruling anchored on a December 2017 judgment of the Court of Appeal which dismissed the corruption charges instituted against a serving judge of the Federal High Court, Justice Hyeldzira Nganjiwa.
The appeal court had ruled that charges by the EFCC against a serving judge was improper.
The court said a serving judge could not be investigated or prosecuted without being first disciplined by the National Judicial Council.
Ngwuta’s counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), had argued that charges instituted against his client were incompetent.
Agabi maintained that going by the judgment of the Court of Appeal, the complaints forming the basis of the charges instituted against Ngwuta ought to have been referred to the NJC and allowed the NJC to discipline him before instituting the charges.
