FORMER GOVERNOR OF ABIA STATE, ORJI UZO KALU STILL IN KUJE PRISON EVEN AFTER COURT SETS HIM FREE

Former governor of Abia state,Orji Uzor Kalu, is still in Kuje prison in the federal capital territory (FCT).

Reports have it that the supreme court has not sent the warrant of release to the prison authorities.

A federal high court in Abuja had sentenced Kalu, chief whip of the senate, to 12 years in prison after he was found guilty of fraud to the tune of N7.56 billion.

The assets of Slok Nigeria Limited, his company, were also forfeited to the federal government.

Ude Udeogu, a former director of finance and account at the Abia government house, was convicted alongside Kalu. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) filed the charges against them.

But displeased with the judgement, Udeogu filed an appeal to challenge the conviction.

His lawyers argued that Mohammed Idris, the judge who handed down the ruling, lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case because he had been elevated to the appeal court at the time he sentenced them to prison.

The apex court, in a unanimous verdict on the appeal delivered by Ejembi Eko, declared that the conviction of the appellant was null and void.

Eko explained that the declaration was on the ground that Idris was already a judge of the court of appeal, as at the time he delivered the judgment sentencing the appellants.

He held that a justice of the court of appeal could not operate as a judge of the federal high court. The apex court, therefore, ordered the chief judge of the federal high court to reassign the case for trial.

It is now being feared that Kalu may not benefit from the judgment because he was a respondent, rather than the appellant, in the case before the apex court