Breaking: Court jails ex-Abia Gov. Orji Kalu 12 years for fraud, money laundering

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A Federal High Court in Lagos on Thursday sentenced a former Governor of Abia, Orji Kalu, to 12 years’ imprisonment for N7.2 billion fraud and money laundering.

The court convicted Kalu,  now a senator,  on all the 39 counts preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes  Commission charge.

Kalu was charged alongside a former Commissioner for Finance, in the state Jones Udeogo, and his company, Slok Nig. Ltd.

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While Kalu and his company were found guilty of all the 39 counts,  Udeogo was convicted on 34 counts and sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.

The court ordered that the Slok Nig. Ltd. Should  be wound up and its assets forfeited to the Federal Government.

Meanwhile, The Herald reported that Appeal Court sitting in Owerri on Thursday affirmed the election of Sen. Orji Kalu, representing Abia North Senatorial District.

In a unanimous decision, the appellate court held that the lower tribunal, which upturned Orji Kalu’s election, erred on several counts.

Delivering the judgment, the Presiding Judge, Justice R. A. Adah, said that the grounds upon which the lower tribunal predicated its verdict were not tenable in law. He said that the lower tribunal granting the petitioner’s reliefs, which he did not ask for, was unacceptable in law.

Addressing newsmen at the end of the judgment, Counsel for Kalu, Mr Perfect Okorie, said that “the relief the petitioner, Sen. Mao Ohuabunwa, asked for was for the nullification of the election in Bende and Isiukwuato.”

Okorie said that the lower tribunal while embarking on its own expedition, “granted strange reliefs and nullified elections in some polling units in Ohafia and Arochukwu.”

 

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