Alleged N5b Fraud: Orji Kalu Has Case To Answer - Appeal Court

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Friday, unanimously held that the former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, had a case to answer over his alleged theft of N5 billion public funds while in office between 1999 and 2007.
The court cleared the coast for the prosecuting Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to continue with his trial at the Federal High Court, Abuja, by dismissing Kalu’s appeal seeking to upturn the decision of the trial court that he must face trial.

A full panel of the court led by Justice Ejembi Eko, while throwing out the appeal by the former governor and his company; Slok Nigeria, also ruled a restraining exparte order granted Kalu by the Abia State High Court on 31st May, 2007, a racket, aimed at frustrating his arrest and prosecution.

The High Court had ordered the Federal High Court to stay all proceedings against Orji, with the former Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice Michael Aondoaaka (SAN), declaring then that the prosecution would obey it.
Justice Eko in yesterday’s lead judgement held that “That order was an order at large, personal rather than definite. It was an order made as an ex-parte and not at the course of trial and an abuse of court process.”
Kalu and his company had asked the appellate court to set aside the ruling of the Federal High Court that they had a case to answer, claiming that they were arraigned on non-existent law and that the proof of evidence did not disclose a prima facie case against them.

The appellants further contended that since the Abia State High Court had issued an ex-parte motion on the matter, the Federal High Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case, while seeking the leave of the appellate court to enforce his fundamental human rights by declaring his arrest, detention, and arraignment a nullity.
They wanted the court to determine whether the EFCC and the federal government were competent to prosecute a case involving the revenue of a state.
Justice Eko, reading on behalf of Justices Kayode Bada and Regina Nwodo, resolved all the grounds of appeal in favour of EFCC and dismissed the appeal for lack of merit.

Justice Eko held that the proof of evidence attached to the 97 count charge preferred against the appellants by the EFCC disclosed a prima facie case against the former governor and others, adding that that as far as there was a link which prima facie was all about, the appellants had an obligation to stand trial to
He affirmed that the claim of breach of personal freedom by Orji was sentimental in nature, saying that ”This claim borders on the realm of conspiracy theory and is politically motivated. Right to personal liberty is not absolute”.

On whether EFCC had the competence to charge the appellants, the court maintained that both the EFCC Establishment Act and the Money laundering and Prohibition Act, (MPLA, 2003, 2004) had given the commission power to prosecute offenders.
“EFCC derives its competence to prosecute from section 6 and 7 of its Establishing Act. Equally, the definition of economic crime is quite wide,” the judge said.

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