The Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) has explained its continued holding of former Abia State Governor, Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu, despite last week’s Supreme Court ruling quashing his conviction and 12-year sentence.
Rumour circulated on Friday that Kalu had been released from the Kuje Custodial Centre after Friday’s judgement of the apex court.
But the NCoS spokesman, Chuks Njoku said it was not so, explaining that the service had yet to release him because it had not received the court judgment and the warrant for the release of the Senate Chief Whip.
“We have not received any paper ; the order was just made on Friday and we have to get the warrant of release from the Supreme Court . But we have no warrant to release him . The court pronouncement is not enough to release him,” The Punch quoted Njoku as saying on Monday.
According to him, the senator representing Abia North in the 9th Senate would remain in custody until the service received the warrant for his release.
The Herald recalls that Kalu had released a statement expressing gratitude to the Supreme Court for quashing his conviction.
Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos convicted Kalu, his company, Slok Nigeria Limited and former Director of Finance at the Abia State Government House, Mr. Jones Udeogu in December 2019 over corruption charges to the tune of N7.1 billion.
While the ex-governor bagged a 12-year prison term, Udeogu was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
However, Udeogu challenged the court judgement at the Supreme Court.
A seven-man panel of Supreme Court Justices overturned the conviction and sentence and ordered fresh trial on Friday.
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