Court orders release of Orji Kalu from jail

Court orders release of Orji Kalu from jail

- The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) to release Orji Uzor Kalu from detention

- The court delivered the judgment on Tuesday morning, June 2, after listening to an application filed by the former governor

- Kalu had asked the court to release him on the grounds that the judge who sentenced him to 12 years in prison gave the judgment without jurisdiction

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The Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCS) to immediately release a former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu from detention.

Channels TV reported that the court delivered the judgment on Tuesday morning, June 2, after listening to an application filed by the former governor.

Court orders release of Orji Kalu from jail
A former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu, has finally won his freedom. Photo credits: Channels TV
Source: UGC

Kalu, who is a current senator, had asked the court to release him on the grounds that the judge who sentenced him to 12 years in prison on December 5, 2019, gave the judgment without jurisdiction.

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The former governor was sentenced to 12 years in prison after the EFCC arraigned him on 36 counts of money laundering to the tune of N7.1 billion.

But on May 8, the Supreme Court nullified the trial of Kalu and his co-convicts on the grounds that Mohammed Idris, the trial judge had been elevated to the court of appeal at the time of the case, and ought not to have presided over the matter while he was an appeal court judge.

Meanwhile, protesters have stormed the complex of the National Assembly calling on the Senate president Ahmad Lawan to declare vacant the seat of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.

The protesters, who came to the assembly complex on Tuesday, June 2, under the aegis of Concerned Citizens of Abia North, staged the show of displeasure against the former state governor.

According to Vanguard, the protesters wanted Lawan to declare embattled Senator Kalu's seat vacant so that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can conduct another election for the district.

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The protesters further stressed that since Senator Orji's trial, people of the five local governments areas constituting the Abia north have been voiceless in Senate and the politics of Nigeria.

They also lamented that senatorial district is grossly prone to ecological disasters, especially erosion and landslide, urging the president of the Senate to accept their demand with open arms.

In another news report, Orji Uzor Kalu said he is looking forward to rejoining his colleagues "in the Senate as soon as possible" following his victory at the Supreme Court on Friday, May 8.

In a statement after his freedom, Kalu who served as Abia governor between 1999 to 2007, boasted he is anticipating his return at the upper chamber.

The lawmaker is representing the people of Abia North in the Senate, running on the platform of the ruling of All Progressives Congress (APC).

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