Orji Kalu
Orji Uzor Kalu at court premises on Thursday, December 5, 2019.
By Our Reporter
That former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment by Justice Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court in Lagos is a stale news. What is perhaps news is that Kalu pleaded with the prison warders not to hand cuff him shortly after he was jailed.
‘Where are you taking us to now? Please don’t handcuff me, I will follow you, he told prison warders who walked towards him with handcuff.
In an amended 39 counts, the EFCC accused them of conspiring and diverting N7.65bn from the coffers of the state.
In one of the counts, the EFCC alleged that Mr Kalu, who was Abia State Governor between 1999 and 2007, procured Slok Nigeria Limited – a company solely owned by him and members of his family – to retain its account, domiciled with the then Inland Bank Plc, Apapa branch, Lagos, an aggregate sum of N7,197,871,208.7
The prosecution claimed that the sum N7.1billion formed part of the funds illegally derived from the treasury of the Abia State Government and therefore violating Section 17(c) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004, liable to be punished under Section 16 of the same Act.
Apart from the N7.1billion, the ex-governor and the other defendants were also accused of receiving a total of N460million allegedly stolen from the Abia State Government treasury between July and December 2002.
The prosecutor said they breached Section 427 of the Criminal Code Act, Cap 77, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to all counts.
During the trial, the prosecution called 19 witnesses while the defendants testified on behalf of themselves.
