Orji Uzor Kalu,
former governor of Abia state and chief whip of the senate, will remain in
prison as a court of appeal in Abuja has dismissed an appeal filed against his
sentence.
A federal high court
in Lagos had in December sentenced Kalu to 12 years in prison over N7.1 billion
fraud
The court had
ordered that Kalu’s company, Slok Nigeria Limited, be liquidated and its assets
forfeited to the federal government.
Kalu was also
sentenced alongside Jones Udeogo who served as his director of finance when he
was governor.
In the appeal, they
contended that the federal high court in Lagos lacked the jurisdiction to try
them.
According to PUNCH,
the three-member panel of the appellate court, however, dismissed the appeal
for lacking in merit.
In the judgement
read by Olabisi Ige, a judge, the court held that section 98(3) and (4) of
administration of criminal justice act, 2015 were not applicable to the
appellants’ case.
“Nothing is perverse
with the decision of the trial court. The complaint of the appellants is a
non-issue,” the judge held.
“If a court has a
jurisdiction/power, the fact of doing so under a wrong law is no reason to set
it aside. The rights of the appellants were not infringed.”
The Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had brought a 39-count charge against Kalu.
His corruption trial
began in 2007, but the case had suffered setbacks.
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