Two Chinese citizens, Meng Wei Kun and Xu Kuai has been sentenced to six years by the Appeal Court in Sokoto imprisonment over fraud.
It was gathered that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had earlier charged the convicts before a federal high court in Sokoto on three count charge bordering on conspiracy, money laundering, and attempted bribery to the tune of N50 million.
It was also gathered that the trial court had marked off the charges against the defendants but EFCC indicted the case in Appeal Court.
On Friday while delivering the judgement in Appeal Court, the judge led by Abubakar Talba, found the respondents guilty of the two out of three counts.
According to judge “The respondents are charged with conspiracy and making a cash payment in excess of the threshold provided by the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 ( as amended in 2012) to Abdullahi Lawal (then zonal head of EFCC Sokoto) which was established beyond reasonable doubt before the lower Court but surprisingly the trial Judge somersaulted in his judgement and recanted”.
Talba maintained that the EFCC was able to convince the charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Judge said “I regret to say that the judgment is like a fiction by the trial judge who created doubts in his mind while discharging his responsibilities.”
“Without doubt, the trial judge grossly misconceived that no offence was committed.
“Conspiracy is a distinct offence even if the commission of the actual offence is aborted, and in the instant case there exists positive cogent inescapable evidence the offence was committed.
“The respondents are Chinese and an offence of this gravity in their home country attracts the death penalty yet here they are corrupting our country.
“The courts of the federal republic of Nigeria will not condone corruption in any way. As President Muhammadu Buhari has said, “if we don’t kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.”
The court held that the appeal was “immensely meritorious” and convicted and sentenced the Chinese nationals to three years on each of the two counts.
Though, an option of N10 million fine on each count were given to each of the convicts.
