A federal high court
in Lagos has ordered the release of Orji Kalu, former Abia state governor, from
prison.
Mohammed Liman,
judge of the federal high court in Lagos, had fixed June 2 to hear of a motion
on notice filed by Kalu, seeking release from prison.
In his application,
the former governor asked the court to order his release from the custody of
the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS), Kuje, Abuja, following the
nullification of his conviction by the supreme court.
The Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had arraigned Kalu and Ude Jones Udeogu, a
former director of finance and account of Abia state on 36 counts of money
laundering to the tune of N7.1 billion.
On December 5, 2019,
Kalu was sentence to 12 years imprisonment while Udeogu got a 10-year sentence.
On May 8, the
supreme court nullified the trial of Kalu and his co-convicts.
The apex court held
that Mohammed Idris, the trial judge who had been elevated to the court of
appeal at the time of the case, ought not to have presided over the matter
while he was an appeal court judge.
Ejembi Eko, who read
the lead judgment on behalf of the seven-man panel of justices, said section
396(7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA), 2015, on which
Zainab Bulkachuwa, former president of the court of appeal, relied on to
authorise the trial judge to return to the high court to conclude the trial was
unconstitutional.
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