The Federal High Court Sitting in Abuja on Tuesday barred the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission(EFCC) from re-trying former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzo Kalu, on the N7.1 billion money laundering charge preferred against him.
Justice Inyang Ekwo in its judgment held that the Supreme Court did not order the retrial of Kalu or his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited in its judgment of May 8, 2020.
Justice Ekwo held that the Supreme Court only ordered the retrial of former Director of Finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu, who was the appellant before it.
Consequently, Justice Ekwo upheld a suit that Kalu filed to challenge the legal propriety of his planned re-arraignment by the EFCC.
In the application filed through his lawyers led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr Awa Kalu, the former governor argued that allowing the EFCC to try him afresh on the charge and same facts upon which he was earlier convicted and sentenced on December 5, 2019, would occasion him to suffer a “double jeopardy”.
He said, “The unassailable position of the law is that no person who shows that he has been tried by any court of competent jurisdiction or tribunal for a criminal offence and either convicted or acquitted shall again be tried for that offence having the same ingredients as that offence, save upon the order or a competent Court.”
