An Abuja appellate court has dismissed the federal government’s appeal to reopen former Abia state governor Orji Kalu‘s criminal trial.
In the decision issued on Wednesday, a three-member panel of the court ruled that the record of appeal submitted to the court was defective.
Joseph Oyewole, who read the lead judgement, concluded that the federal government failed to properly transmit the record as required by the court’s rules and that it was neither stamped nor signed.
Consequently, the two appeals filed against Kalu and his firm, CA/ABJ/CV/797/2021 and CA/ABJ/CV/798/2021, were struck out.
In a federal high court in Lagos, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charged Kalu, Ude Udeogu (a former director of finance and accounts with the Abia state government), and Kalu’s company, Slok Nigeria Limited, with 39 counts of fraud amounting to N7.1 billion.
After the trial, Kalu was sentenced to 12 years in prison, while Udeogu was sentenced to 10 years by Mohammed Idris, who is now a justice of the court of appeals.
Additionally, Slok Nigeria Limited, the third defendant, was ordered to be liquidated and its assets forfeited to the Nigerian government.
However, on May 8, 2020, the Supreme Court overturned the trial and ordered a retrial following an appeal filed by Kalu’s co-defendant.
But Kalu asked the court to prevent the commission from retrying him.
According to him, the Supreme Court’s decision on retrial was unique to Udeogu, and allowing him to face a new trial on the same charge would constitute double jeopardy.
In September 2021, Inyang Ekwo, a federal high court judge, ruled that the Supreme Court did not specifically order Kalu’s retrial.
The judge said:
“He cannot be retried safely with an order of the Supreme Court”
However, Ekwo ruled that because the Supreme Court specifically ordered that Udeogu’s case file be returned to the Federal High Court, the EFCC could proceed with his retrial.