A Supreme Court judge, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta, was on Monday arraigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja, over alleged money laundering and breaches relating to his passports.
Justice Ngwata was arraigned on 16-count charge by the Department of Department of State Service, which had alleged that the Supreme Court judge transferred N505 million to a firm, Nwamba Linus Chukwuebuka, between January and May this year.
The prosecutor also alleged that Justice Ngwuta instructed a relative to remove exotic cars from his Ebonyi home during investigation.
In addition, two valid diplomatic passports and two standard Nigerian passports were found in his house during the October 8 raid on the building by DSS operatives.
He was also accused of instructing a relative to remove some exotic cars from his house in Ebonyi while he was under investigation in violation of the provisions of section 18(1)(b) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission Act.
He was also accused of retaining huge sums of money in local and foreign currencies which were alleged to be proceeds of his unlawful act contrary to the provisions of the Money Laundering Act.
The prosecution also accused of Ngwuta of concealing the origin of sums of money which were said to have been found at his home during the raid on his house by the operatives of the DSS between October 7 and 8.
Apart from the money laundering charges, Ngwuta was accused of passport offences in counts eight to 14 of the amended charges.
He was accused of being in possession of two valid Diplomatic Passports and another two valid Standard Nigerian Passports, when his house was raided by DSS operatives on October 8, 2016.
He also allegedly submitted multiple applications, made false information of loss of the passports and of his age age with intention to obtain multiple of the passports in violation of various provisions of the Immigration Act 2015.
Justice Ngwuta pleaded not guilty to all the charges filed by the prosecution.
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