The appellant and 2nd respondent was arraigned before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja in Charge No. FHC/ABJ/CR/05/2016 for the offences of Money Laundering contrary to sections 1, 15(2)(d)(6) and 17(b) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2011 (as amended). The case proceeded to trial and the prosecution called eight witnesses who were cross-examined by the defence before closing its case.

Both the appellant and the 2nd respondent made a no case submission which was dismissed by the trial court and they commenced their defence before filing the preliminary objection challenging the jurisdiction of the court to entertain counts 1 and 2 of the Charge on the ground that the counts contain, as one of their ingredients, the issue of award of contract for which the Federal High Court has no jurisdiction to receive evidence in proof thereof.

After listening to the arguments of counsel the learned trial Judge decided to defer the ruling on the preliminary objection to be considered along with the substantive issue at the time of delivery of judgement.

The appellant was dissatisfied with the decision and appealed against it via a notice of appeal dated the 27 day of April, 2016 which was filed on 29 day of April, 2016. The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division suo motu struck out the appeal on 10 May, 2017 without hearing the address of the parties. The lower court held that the appeal is an interlocutory decision of the trial court on exercise of discretion, the grounds of which are at best grounds of mixed law and fact for which leave to appeal before the notice is filed and since no leave was obtained before filing, the appeal is incompetent.

The Court further held that if the appeal is competent, the Federal High Court has jurisdiction over money laundering offences and there was nothing wrong in the trial court considering the preliminary objection with the substantive issues at the delivery of judgement as the law allows applications to be taken along with the substantive case.