The Supreme Court has upheld the nullification of a judgment that convicted Godsday Orubebe, a former minister of Niger Delta Affairs, over a false declaration of assets.
In a unanimous judgment delivered on Friday, a five-member panel of the apex court dismissed the appeal by the federal government seeking to set aside the verdict of the court of appeal.
The appellate court had discharged and acquitted the former minister of the alleged offence.
On October 4, 2016, Danladi Umar, chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), convicted Orubebe for allegedly failing to declare plot 2057, Asokoro, Abuja.
The government filed a one-count charge of false asset declaration against him.
The former minister had told the tribunal that the property was no longer his when he went into public service.
In the lead judgment prepared by Justice Mohammed Lawal Garba, but read on Friday by Justice Emmanuel Agim, the court found that the appellant failed to obtain the prior leave of the court before filing the appeal, which was based on grounds of mixed law and facts.
The court held that since the prior leave of court was not obtained as required, the appeal was incompetent and proceeded to dismiss it.
The Fed Govt’s appeal, marked: SC/680/2017 was against the June 14, 2017 judgment of the Court of Appeal, Abuja which set aside Orubebe’s conviction on October 4, 2016 by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) for breach of Code of Conduct for public officers.
The Fed Govt had, in a single-count charge, been accused of failing to declare a property at Plot 2057, Asokoro District, Abuja, in any of the asset declaration forms that he submitted to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) while serving as a minister.
Orubebe denied the allegation, claiming to have sold the property before becoming a minister and therefore finding no need to declare it.
