Breaking: Orji Uzor Kalu Floors EFCC As Court Stops Retrial

• The Senate chief whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, on Wednesday, September 29, got great relief after the pronouncement by an Abuja court
• The Federal High Court ruled that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) has no legal right to retry Kalu
• Kalu, who had been earlier prosecuted by the anti-graft agency over alleged N7.1 billion fraud, was discharged by the Supreme Court

FCT, Abuja - The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja has barred the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from retrying the former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu.

Vanguard reports that Kalu, who is the Senate chief whip, is being prosecuted based on the N7.1 billion money laundering charge the anti-graft agency earlier preferred against him.

Legit.ng gathered that Justice Inyang Ekwo gave the order on Wednesday, September 29, in a judgment on an application filed by the former governor seeking an order of court prohibiting the EFCC from retrying him on a charge for which he had already been tried and convicted.

Read also

Forgery: CSO reacts as police release detained Benue APC Reps aspirant

The judge said:

““The unassailable position of the law is that no person who shows that he has been tried by any court of competent jurisdiction or tribunal for a criminal offence and either convicted or acquitted shall again be tried for that offence having the same ingredients as that offence, save upon the order or a competent court."

Supreme Court did not order the retrial of Kalu's case

PM News also reports that Justice Ekwo held that the Supreme Court did not in the verdict it gave on May 8, 2020, order the retrial of either Kalu or his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited.

Justice Ekwo held that the Supreme Court only ordered the retrial of the former director of finance in Abia state, Jones Udeogu, who was the appellant before it.

Read also

2023: I am a public servant, not a political appointee, Emefiele tells court

He upheld a suit Kalu filed to challenge the legal propriety of his planned re-arraignment by the EFCC.

Kalu had in the application he filed through his team of lawyers led by Chief Awa Kalu, SAN, argued that allowing the EFCC to try him afresh on the charge and same facts upon which he was earlier convicted and sentenced on December 5, 2019, would occasion him to suffer a "double jeopardy.”

EFCC set to file fresh charges against PDP chieftain Olisa Metuh

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that a Federal High Court in Abuja fixed Thursday, October 14, for the arraignment of Olisa Metuh, former national publicity secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over an alleged N400 million fraud.

It was reported that the arraignment which was initially scheduled for Tuesday, September 28, was adjourned following the absence of Obiora Egwuatu, the judge.

Metuh would be re-tried over allegations of receiving the sum of 400 million from the former national security adviser in 2014 under the administration of Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd).

Source: Legit.ng