The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will on Tuesday, February 2 arraign former governor of Abia State and Senate Chief Whip Orji Kalu before the Federal High Court in Abuja, Qed.ng has learnt.
Kalu will be tried before Justice Inyang Ekwo on money laundering charges to the tune of N7.1 billion.
A Federal High Court in Lagos had in 2019 convicted Kalu, his company Slok Nigeria Limited; and a former director of finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu, of laundering N7.1billion from the state treasury.
But the Supreme Court, in its judgement on May 8, 2020, quashed the conviction and ordered retrial of the defendants by the EFCC.
In a unanimous decision by a seven-man panel, the apex court nullified the entire proceedings that led to Kalu’s conviction, stressing that the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, was already elevated to the Court of Appeal, as of the time he sat and delivered judgement against the defendants.
It noted that Justice Idris was no longer a judge of the Federal High Court as of December 5, 2019, the day the former governor and his co-defendants were found guilty of money laundering charges.
