The Senate Chief Whip and former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu will on July 2, return to court for retrial over alleged N7.1 billion fraud.
This was announced by the Federal High Court, Abuja on Wednesday, after receiving all processes filed by parties in a suit by Kalu to stop his retrial.
Recall that a Lagos division of the court had earlier found the senator guilty and sentenced him to 12 years in prison.
Kalu was convicted alongside his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited and a former Director of Finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu, for stealing N7.1 billion from the state treasury while serving as governor between 1999 to 2007.
The conviction was later quashed by a ruling of the Supreme Court.
The apex court, meanwhile, ordered that the former governor be retried by the defendants, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Consequently, the EFCC dragged Kalu to Abuja Federal High Court and the court in February 2021, granted Kalu leave to challenge the legality of the retrial.
When hearing on Kalu’s suit challenging his retrial resumed on Wednesday, his lawyer, Prof. Awa Kalu (SAN), told the court that the respondents had served him their counter affidavits.
In their responses, counsel to the 1st respondent (EFCC), Oluwaleke Atolagbe, the 2nd respondent, Mr George Ukaegbu and the 3rd respondent, Mr K.C Nwufor all admitted having filed and exchanged processes.
In a short ruling, the presiding judge, Justice Inyang Ekwo noted that since all parties had “joined issues”, the court had taken over control of the case.
Ekwo adjourned the matter until July 2, for adoption.