Appeal court halts Federal Government attempt to retry Orji Uzor Kalu of stealing N1.7 billion Abia state money

The Abuja division of the Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal filed by the Federal Government to reopen the trial of Senator Orji Kalu, former governor of Abia State.

Ruling unanimously on Wednesday, a three-member panel of justices held that the record of appeal that the government transmitted before it was incompetent.

In the lead verdict delivered by Justice J. O. K. Oyewole, the court held that the government failed to properly transmit the record as prescribed by its extant rules, adding that it was neither stamped nor was the official designation of the person who signed it indicated.

The appellate court held that the flaw in the record that was brought before it vitiated the competence of the entire appeal.

Consequently, it struck out the two appeals that the government filed against Kalu and his firm.

Kalu was earlier convicted and handed a 12-year jail term by a Federal High Court in Lagos.

The court convicted him alongside his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited, and a former Director of Finance in the state, Jones Udeogu.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had alleged that the defendants pilfered about N7.1 billion from the Abia State Treasury.

However, following an appeal that was lodged by Udeogu, the Supreme Court quashed his conviction and remitted the case file back for retrial.

A seven-man panel of justices of the apex court noted that trial Justice Mohammed Idris was already elevated to the Court of Appeal at the time he sat and delivered the judgement that convicted the defendants.

It held that Justice Idris was no longer a judge of the High Court as of December 5, 2019, the day Kalu and his co-defendants were found guilty of the money laundering charge against them.

According to the Supreme Court, Justice Idris, having been elevated to the Court of Appeal before then, lacked the powers to return to sit as a High Court Judge.

Kalu was also released from prison based on the judgement in favour of Udeogu.