(DOWNLOAD) Supreme Court Judgement That Quashed Orji Kalu’s Conviction

The Supreme Court of Nigeria had in a unanimous decision by a seven-man panel of Justices led by Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour, nullified the entire proceedings that led to Kalu’s conviction in the ground that the trial High Court Judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, acted without jurisdiction when he convicted Kalu, his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited and a former Director of Finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu.

It noted that Justice Idris was no longer a judge of the Federal High Court as at December 5, 2019, when he sat and delivered the judgement that convicted the defendants for allegedly stealing about N7.1billion from Abia state treasury.

According to the Supreme Court, Justice Idris, having been elevated to the Court of Appeal before then, lacked the powers to return to sit as a High Court Judge.

It held that the Fiat that was issued to him by the Court of Appeal President pursuant to section 396(7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, ACJA, 2015, was unconstitutional.

“The Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal are all courts that were set up and established by the Constitution. No head of either court perform the function or interfere in the internal activities of either court.

“Just as the Court of Appeal President has no power to assign case to any Federal High Court Judge, so also does the Federal High Court Chief Judge lack the powers to interfere in the activities of the Court of Appeal”

It therefore ordered that the charge in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CR/26/2017, which EFCC entered against Kalu and his co-defendants, should be remitted back to Chief Judge of the Federal High Court for re-assignment to any other judge for the trial to commence de-novo (afresh).

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