Nigeria Correctional Service: Why Kalu Is Still In Prison

The Nigeria Correctional Service has said it has not released a former Abia State Governor, Orji Kalu, from the Kuje custodial facility because no warrant for his release from the Supreme Court has been received.

The NCoS spokesman, Chuks Njoku, said this in reaction to reports that Kalu had been released from custody where he had been held for five months.

Reports had indicated that the senator was released on Friday shortly after the Supreme Court voided his December conviction in a multi-billion naira corruption trial.

The lawmaker was said to have moved to his residence in Asokoro, Abuja after he was discharged from custody by the NCoS.

But the NCoS spokesman, Chuks Njoku, told The PUNCHthat the service had not received the court judgment and the warrant for Kalu’s release from the custodial centre.

He said, “We have not received any paper; the order was just made on Friday and we have to get the warrant of release from the Supreme Court. But we have no warrant to release him. The court pronouncement is not enough to release him.”

Njoku insisted that the senator would remain in custody, adding that “he would not be released until we get a warrant from the court.”

A Lagos Division of the Federal High Court had last year found the former governor guilty of stealing N7.1 billion and sentenced him to 12 years imprisonment.

But the Supreme Court in its judgment held that the trial court acted without jurisdiction when it convicted Kalu, his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited, and former Director of Finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu.

The apex court in a unanimous decision by a seven-man panel of Justices led by Justice Amina Augie, noted that the trial judge, Justice Liman, having been elevated to the Court of Appeal before then, lacked the powers to return to sit as a High Court Judge to deliver judgment in Kalu’s trial.

He held that a Justice of the Court of Appeal cannot operate as a judge of the Federal High Court, and ordered the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the case for trial.