The Supreme Court has quashed the conviction of former Governor of Abia State Orji Uzor Kalu, 5 months after he was sentenced to jail on laundering charges.
The nation’s apex court held on Friday that his conviction was a nullity because the trial judge lacked the requisite jurisdiction having been elevated to the Court of Appeal.
In December 2019, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu moved from the Nigerian Senate to prison or correctional centre as it is currently known, following his conviction on charges of money laundering in a trial which spanned over 12 years.
He was sentenced along with his company Slok Nigeria Limited and Jones Udeogu who served as the director of finance and accounts at the Abia State government house over a N7.1 billion fraud said to have been perpetuated while serving as governor of Abia State between 1999 – 2007
The trial judge was Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court Lagos. While hearing the case, Justice Idris was promoted to the Court of Appeal. But in line with section 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act ACJA, Justice Idris was given the permission by the president of the Court of Appeal to conclude the criminal matters in his trial docket at the Federal High Court.
Read Also: N240 million Conditional Cash Transfer for Cross River State
Section 396 (7) of the ACJA expressly states: “notwithstanding the provision of any other law to the contrary, a judge of the High Court who has been promoted to the Court of Appeal shall have dispensation to continue to sit as a judge, only for the purposes of concluding any part-heard criminal matter, pending before him at the time of his elevation and shall be concluded within reasonable time, provided that this section shall not prevent him from assuming his duty as a justice of the Court of Appeal”
The idea behind this provision is to ensure that criminal matters do no start de novo before another judge and thus drag on for too long.
Judges who have been elevated to the Court of Appeal have been relying on this provision to continue adjudicating on pending criminal matters at the High Courts, and so the case of Orji Kalu and Justice Mohammed Idris was not different.
But the Supreme Court for the first time since the enactment of the ACJA 2015 has slammed the practice as unconstitutional and inconsistent with the provisions of the 1999 Nigerian constitution as amended. The beneficiary happens to be Senator Uzor Kalu.
In a judgement on Friday, the nation’s apex court held that Justice Mohammed Idris who had been elevated from a judge of the High Court to a justice of the Court of Appeal lacked the jurisdiction to sit anymore as a High Court judge
Essentially, the Supreme Court has laid down a marker on the propriety of section 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015, clarifying that it is in clear conflict with the provisions of the constitution on the hierarchy of courts in Nigeria
Read Also: 12,500 metric tonnes of grains set for distribution as Coronavirus palliatives
In a unanimous decision handed down by Justice Ejembi Eko, the apex court consequently declared the judgement which convicted and sentenced Orji Kalu to 12 years imprisonment as a nullity, the proceedings having been conducted without jurisdiction and directed the prosecution to go back and start the trial afresh if it so wishes.
The implication of this judgement is the precedent it has established in similar cases. The Supreme Court has also given a hint for an amendment to section 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act 2015.
(Editor: Terverr Tyav)
