The Court of Appeal in Abuja has granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) leave to challenge a Federal High Court ruling barring it from retrying former Abia State Governor Orji Uzor Kalu over alleged N7.1 billion fraud.
In two separate rulings delivered by a three-member panel on Friday, the Court of Appeal allowed an extension of time for the federal government to file its appeal against the 29 September 2021 judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
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The contested judgement had stopped the EFCC from prosecuting Mr Kalu, who currently represents Abia North in the Senate.
Kalu’s conviction and Supreme Court ruling
Mr Kalu, who governed Abia State from 1999 to 2007, was convicted in December 2019 by the Federal High Court in Lagos and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
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The court found him, his company, Slok Nigeria Limited, and a former Abia State Director of Finance, Jones Udeogu, guilty of laundering N7.1 billion from the state treasury.
However, in May 2020, the Supreme Court overturned Mr Udeogu’s conviction, ruling that the trial judge, Mohammed Idris, had been elevated to the Court of Appeal before delivering the judgement and, therefore, lacked jurisdiction.
As a result, the Supreme Court nullified the trial and ordered a retrial for Mr Udeogu.
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Following this decision, Mr Kalu, who was already serving his sentence at the Kuje Correctional Centre, applied for release, arguing that his own conviction was also affected by the Supreme Court ruling.
The Federal High Court in Abuja granted his request, leading to his release.
Legal battle over retrial
After Mr Kalu’s release, the EFCC sought to restart his trial along with Mr Udeogu.
However, Mr Kalu and Slok Nigeria Limited filed separate lawsuits to block the move, contending that a retrial would amount to double jeopardy—being tried twice for the same offence.
His legal team argued that since the Supreme Court’s ruling only explicitly ordered a retrial for Mr Udeogu, the EFCC had no legal basis to prosecute Mr Kalu again.
EFCC countered the argument, maintaining that Mr Kalu could not take advantage of the favourable aspect of the judgement without accepting the burden of retrial that went with it.
But the judge, Inyang Ekwo, sided with Mr Kalu in his decision delivered on 29 September 2021, ruling that the EFCC could not retry the former governor since his retrial was not expressly ordered by the Supreme Court.
“He cannot be retried safely without an order of the Supreme Court,” the judge held.
Dissatisfied with the ruling, the EFCC challenged it at the Court of Appeal.
ALSO READ: Alleged N7.1 billion Fraud: Appeal court strikes out EFCC’s suit seeking Orji Kalu’s retrial
However, on 6 March 2024, the appellate court struck out the appeal, citing procedural lapses, including improper stamping of court records and the failure to properly indicate the signatory’s designation.
The EFCC, after correcting the errors pointed out in its initial appeal, made the necessary corrections and refiled it.
But Mr Kalu and his firm, Slok, opposed the appeal, arguing that the Court of Appeal had become functus officio (lost jurisdiction) on the matter, having initially struck it out.
However, in a ruling on Friday, a member of the Court of Appeal panel, Ishaq Sanni, dismissed objections, stating that the appeal court’s decision focused on technicalities rather than the merit of the case.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the EFCC had valid reasons to seek an extension of time to file its appeal, as the original three-month deadline had elapsed.
It granted the government 14 days to formally file its notice of appeal against the judgement that blocked Mr Kalu’s retrial.
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