Orubebe appeals false declaration of assets conviction

Former Niger Delta Minister, Godswill Orubebe has appealed the conviction of false declaration of assets on him by the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

In an appeal filed by his lawyer in Abuja on Wednesday, Orubebe urged the Court of Appeal to dismiss the CCT verdict.

He said there was no evidence on which the CCT reached its decision.

He said the tribunal ordered the forfeiture of the property in issue, Plot 2057 Asokoro District, to the Federal Government, “without any proof of the offence, thereby occasioning gross miscarriage of justice.”

“The tribunal has no power beyond the provisions of the CCB/T Act as incorporated under the 5th Schedule of the Constitution.

“The tribunal lacks the jurisdiction to interpret and sanction under the LIRA, 2007, which neither provides a time limit for the registration of title, nor any sanction for delayed registration,” he said.

Orubebe further argued, through his lawyer, that “the judgment did not in any way contemplate our law. Our law does not ascribe ownership of a plot of land to a person, who had divested his/her interest by selling to another person.

“In fact it was made very clear to the tribunal that the transaction was completed well before his last declaration of assets alleged to be in breach of the CCB/T Act.

“Assuming, without conceding) that Orubebe did not declare the said Plot 2057 Asokoro, it would still not amount to an infraction of the Act, because it (the plot) was a gift to him by the Federal Government.

“For a non-declaration to amount to an infraction of the Act, the property in question must have been acquired with some income reasonably attributable to corruption. In one sentence, the judgment by the CCT is a travesty of justice,” he said.

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