N7.6bn Fraud Case: Court of Appeal Rejects Bid to Retry Orji Kalu

In a major legal event, the Federal Government’s attempts to retry Orji Uzor Kalu, the current senator representing Abia North and former governor of Abia State, in the N7.6 billion fraud case brought against him, have been severely thwarted by the Court of Appeal in Abuja.

The case is based on a December 2019 Federal High Court ruling by Justice Mohammed Idris, who sentenced Kalu to 12 years in prison for allegedly embezzling public monies while he was governor. Likewise, Ude Udeogu, who held the position of Director of Finance and Accounts at the Abia State Government House during Kalu’s tenure as governor, was sentenced to ten years in prison for the identical offence.

Kalu, Udeogu, and Kalu’s business, Slok Nigeria Limited, were accused by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of conspiracy and the diversion of N7.65 billion from the state’s coffers.

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Kalu and Udeogu appealed their sentences to the highest court, contesting their convictions. The appellants’ convictions were declared void by the Supreme Court in a ruling delivered by Justice Ejembi Eko. The court cited a fundamental procedural defect, namely that the trial judge, Justice Idris, was concurrently functioning as a Justice of the Court of Appeal at the time of the judgement. This decision made it clear that a Justice of the Court of Appeal cannot sit on the Federal High Court’s presiding committee.

As a result, the Federal High Court Chief Judge was directed by the Supreme Court to reassign the matter for a new trial. But Kalu quickly got a Federal High Court ruling prohibiting the EFCC from starting a new trial, arguing that he was not expressly mentioned in the Supreme Court’s judgment.

The federal government filed an appeal against the High Court’s ruling because it was unhappy with this development. But in a recent decision, the Court of petition decisively rejected the government’s petition.

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While delivering the lead judgement, Justice Joseph Oyewole emphasised how the government had neglected to provide proper records of the High Court’s proceedings. He stressed that the government’s record was insufficient and untrustworthy for the retrial that was demanded. Oyewole identified several significant flaws, pointing out that the appeal record was not assembled, approved, or signed by a designated official as required by law.

“The record of an appeal brought by the federal government was incompetent and unreliable for any court to use to grant the request of the government,” Justice Oyewole stated. He further highlighted the absence of the name of the person responsible for compiling, signing, and certifying the record, as required by law.

 

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