In Nigeria, two Chinese nationals were condemned to prison for alleged corruption.
Meng Wei Kun and Xu Kuai are the accused.
The Sokoto State Court of Appeal deemed them guilty of the charges leveled against them and sentenced them to three years in prison.
According to reports, the Chinese nationals were previously arraigned before the Federal High Court in Sokoto on a three-count allegation of conspiracy, money laundering, and attempted bribery.
The convicts were said to have proposed a N50 million bribe to officials from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s Sokoto Zonal Command. (EFCC).
The lesser court, however, discharged and acquitted them of the charges, necessitating an appeal by the anti-graft agency.
In his decision on Friday, Justice Abubakar Mahmud Talba stated that the respondents attempted to frustrate the Appeal through manoeuvrings, saying that “gone are the days of technicalities in Law.”
Talba emphasized the importance of allowing cases to be heard on their grounds. The court judge explained that the Nigerian anti-graft agency had proven Counts 1 and 2 of the 3 Count charge before the Federal High Court beyond reasonable doubt, but agreed with the lower Court on Count 3 and thus struck it out because a similar Charge was pending before the High Court of Justice Sokoto State.
“The respondents are charged with conspiracy and making a cash payment to Abdullahi Lawal (then zonal head of EFCC Sokoto) in excess of the threshold provided by the Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011 as amended in 2012, which was established beyond a reasonable doubt before the lower Court, but surprisingly, the trial Judge somersaulted in his judgement and recanted.”
“I regret to inform you that the judgment is a work of fiction by the trial judge, who created doubts in his mind while carrying out his duties.”
“Without a doubt, the trial judge was gravely mistaken that no offense had been committed,” Justice Talba observed.
He noted that conspiracy was a separate offense even if the real offense was aborted.
“And in this case, there is positive cogent inescapable evidence that the offence was committed,” said Justic Talba.
He found the appeal to be extremely meritorious and thus convicted and sentenced the Chinese nationals to three years in prison on each of the two counts, with the choice of a N10 million fine on each count.
“Before I draw the curtain, the respondents are Chinese, and an offense of this gravity would result in the death penalty in their home country, yet they are corrupting our country here.”
“The Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Courts will not condone corruption in any way; as President Muhammadu Buhari has said, if we do not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria,” Talba said as he delivered his decision.
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