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Orji Uzo kalu released from Prison as Supreme Court nullifies his 12 years jail term, EFCC Reacts
The Supreme Court on Friday nullified the trial of a former governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, and others, who were in December convicted and sentenced for a N7.1bn fraud.
Justice Mohammed Idris, who had been elevated to the Court of Appeal bench, had returned to the Federal High Court in Lagos to complete the case which started in 2007.
The judge had sentenced the ex-governor to 12 years imprisonment for the fraud he allegedly perpetrated during his tenure as Abia State governor.
But in a unanimous judgment of the Supreme Court led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, on Friday, the apex court nullified the entire trial, on the grounds that the constitution does not permit a judge elevated to a higher court to return to a lower court to conclude a part-heard case.
In Reaction, The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says Orji Uzor Kalu, will face immediate retrial for money laundering.
Although the supreme court did not acquit him of the charges of money laundering, the court upturned the verdict of the trial court on the grounds that Mohammed Liman, the judge who heard the case, was no longer a judge of the federal high court at the time he handled and delivered judgment on the matter.
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