Orji Uzor Kalu is one the many judicial miracles that Nigeria has produced in the political arena. He was convicted of fraud and sentenced to ten years imprisonment by Hon. Justice Idris, now in the Supreme Court. He went to jail. His co-accused appealed his own conviction up to the Supreme Court on the basis that Justice Idris had been elevated to the Court of Appeal when he gave the judgment. The Supreme Court agreed with the co-accused, quashed his conviction and ordered a retrial of the charges against him. Orji Uzor Kalu, who had not appealed his conviction and sentence sprang up to take benefit of the judgment by securing an order for his own release from jail on the basis of it.
The EFCC then moved to re-arraign him as the judgment directed. Kalu rushed to the Federal High Court to plead that he had been convicted before on the same charges and could not be tried on them a second time. When reminded of the judgment of the Supreme Court on the basis of which he was released from jail, Kalu argued that he was not the Appellant in the said judgment and therefore, his own conviction still stood. The Federal High Court agreed with him and held that his conviction on the charges, not having been affected by the Supreme Court judgment, still stood and he could therefore not be tried again on the same charges.
Then came 2023, and Kalu contested and was declared elected into the Senate. His opponent rushed to the election tribunal with the complaint that with Kalu’s conviction still standing, as the Federal High Court declared, in agreement with Kalu’s own admission, he was not qualified to contest for the Senate. Kalu again objected and argued that his conviction was quashed by the Supreme Court, relying again on the same judgment of the Supreme Court in the appeal of his co-accused, and that he was released from jail on that basis.
Again, the tribunal found in his favor and ruled that he was not an ex-convict. Kalu went on to contest for the seat of Senate President and wept profusely when he colleagues rejected him. He still remains the poster boy for Nigerian judicial miracles.
By Chuks Nwachuku, legal practitioner and leadership and good governance advocate; [email protected]
