Slok’s suit to halt Orji Kalu’s retrial continues July 13

Hearing in the suit filed by Slok, a company belonging to Orji Uzor Kalu, former Abia governor, will continue on July 13.

The company had filed the suit against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

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Slok wants the court to restrain EFCC from stopping a retrial in a N7.1 billion fraud case.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, who fixed the date in a ruling, also gave counsel to the plaintiff, Marvel Akpoyibo, seven days to serve his processes on the respondents.

While the EFCC is the 1st respondent, Kalu and a former Director of Finance in Abia, Jones Udeogu, are the 2nd and 3rd respondents respectively.

The anti-graft agency had preferred a 36-count charge against Kalu and Udeogu in 2007.

While the former governor bagged 12 years imprisonment in December 2019, Udeogu was sentenced to 10 years in prison on December 5, 2019.

However, the Supreme Court on May 8, 2020, voided the trial after an appeal filed by Kalu’s co-defendant.

The Supreme Court nullified the trial on the grounds that Mohammed Idris, the trial judge, had no jurisdiction to hear the matter after he was elevated to the Court of Appeal.

Based on the apex court’s verdict, the EFCC, which prosecuted the case, asked the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to transfer the corruption retrial of Kalu and others to the Lagos Division of the court.

But Slok’s counsel, Akpoyibo, in an ex parte application on Monday, told Justice Ekwo that he had a motion seeking “an Order of Prohibition prohibiting retrying” Slok.

The company, which alleged that they were being embarrassed and harassed by the anti-corruption commission, urged the court to stop the EFCC from further retrial.

The ex-governor is also seeking prohibition of the retrial in a separate suit.(NAN)