Former governor of Abia state Orji Uzor Kalu has failed in his bid to quash his conviction for corruption as a court of appeal in Abuja has dismissed an appeal filed against his sentence.
The Federal High Court Lagos had in December sentenced Kalu, alongside Jones Udeogo who served as his director of finance when he was governor, to 12 years in prison for N7.1 billion fraud
The court had also ordered that Kalu’s company, Slok Nigeria Limited, to be liquidated and its assets forfeited to the federal government.
A dissatisfied Kalu had gone on appeal.
But Punch reports that a three-member panel of the appellate court, dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
In the judgement read by Justice Olabisi Ige, the court held that section 98(3) and (4) of administration of criminal justice act, 2015 were not applicable to the appellants’ case.
Ige held, “Nothing is perverse with the decision of the trial court. The complaint of the appellants is a non-issue.
“If a court has a jurisdiction/power, the fact of doing so under a wrong law is no reason to set it aside. The rights of the appellants were not infringed.”
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