About 13 days after he was arrested with $498,100 in Port Harcourt, a member of the House of Representatives, Dr Chinyere Igwe, was on Wednesday arraigned in a Federal High Court sitting in the Rivers State capital.
Igwe, an ally of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, represents Port Harcourt Federal Constituency 2 in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly.
He was arraigned by the police on a one-count of money laundering.
At the beginning of proceedings, prosecution counsel, M. N. Nweke, said Igwe on February 24 accepted that he received a cash payment of the said sum which he neither reported to the CBN nor reported its transportation to the Nigeria Customs Service.
He said the act contravened sections of the Money Laundering and Prohibition Act 2011.
When the charge was read to him, Igwe pleaded not guilty and his counsel made an application for bail which was objected to by the police counsel.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Stephen Daylop-Pam, after listening to the argument, adjourned the case till March 14, 2023 for consideration of the bail application by the federal lawmaker’s lawyer, Ibisiki Tonye, while the accused would remain in police custody.
Justice Daylop-Pam also announced that the criminal trial would begin on May 4, 2023.
He thereafter directed that the accused be sent to the Nigeria Police Clinic for medical attention following a report on his health.
Igwe was arrested with $489, 100 with a list for the distribution of the money during a stop-and-search operation by policemen along Aba Road on the eve of the presidential election.
