Tuesday’s scheduled re-arraignment of former Abia state governor, Orji Uzor Kalu could not hold, following the prosecutor’s counsel’s application for adjournment.
The prosecutor, cineye okorowo told the court there was an issued that needed to be cleared before proceeding. Saying the defendant had written to the chief judge of the federal high court for the matter to be transferred to Lagos based on a Supreme Court judgment.
He pleaded with the court for the matter to be adjourned sine die as it will result to an exercise in futility on the ground that the two letters dated January 20 and February 1st have not been reacted to by the chief judge.
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Justice Inyang Ekwo said he was surprised that neither the letter written to the chief judge nor to the chief registrar was brought to his attention.
He refused to adjourn since then and instead fixed June 7 to hear on the report of the letter written to the chief judge.
Senator kalu, who was the governor of Abia state between 1999 and 2007, was earlier sentenced to a 12-year imprisonment by the Lagos high court division after he was found guilty, alongside his firm, Slok Nigeria limited and a former director of finance in Abia state, Jones Udeogu, for allegedly diverting the sum of N7.1billion from the state treasury for personal use.
The Supreme Court however in a unanimous judgment by a seven-man panel of judges in 2020 nullified the entire proceedings that led to kalu’s conviction having noted that the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, was already elevated to the court of appeal, as at the time he delivered judgment in the trial.
(Editor- Oloyede Oworu)
