A Federal High Court in Abuja has sentenced former Acting Accountant-General of the Federation, Anamekwe Nwabuoku, to 72 years in prison for laundering ₦868.4 million during his tenure at the Ministry of Defence.
In a landmark anti-corruption ruling on Monday, March 23, 2026, Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja sentenced Anamekwe Nwabuoku, the former Acting Accountant-General of the Federation, to 72 years imprisonment. The presiding judge held that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) successfully proved its case across a nine-count amended charge involving money laundering and fraud totaling ₦868.4 million. The court found that Nwabuoku utilized his position as the Director of Finance and Accounts in the Ministry of Defence between 2019 and 2021 to divert public funds into private accounts through a network of complicit investment and logistics firms.
The EFCC’s investigation, marked in charge FHC/ABJ/CR/240/2024, detailed a complex web of financial crimes where Nwabuoku conspired with several entities, including Temeeo Synergy Concept Limited, Turge Global Investment Limited, Laptev Bridge Limited, and Arafura Transnational Afro Limited. These companies were used to “convert funds suspected to be proceeds of unlawful activities,” a direct contravention of Section 18 of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011. Despite being granted a ₦500 million bail earlier in the proceedings, the final judgment underscored the severity of the breach of public trust, with each count carrying a significant custodial sentence to be served concurrently.
Justice Omotosho emphasized that the evidence provided by the anti-graft agency left no doubt regarding Nwabuoku’s culpability in the systematic looting of the Ministry of Defence’s budget. The conviction is being hailed by transparency advocates as a major victory in the government’s effort to sanitize the civil service and hold high-ranking financial officers accountable. Nwabuoku, who briefly stepped into the role of Acting Accountant-General following the suspension of his predecessor, Ahmed Idris, now becomes one of the highest-ranking federal finance officials to receive a lengthy prison sentence for economic crimes in recent Nigerian history.
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