Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Ebu-Olu Adegboruwa has stated the Supreme Court\u2019s judgment, which quashed the conviction and 12-year imprisonment of former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor-Kalu, will affect more cases.<\/p>\n
The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a seven-man panel led by Justice Amina Augie, voided Kalu\u2019s December 2019 trial for stealing about N7.1billion from the Abia State treasury.<\/p>\n
It held that the Federal High Court in Lagos acted without jurisdiction when it convicted Kalu, his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited and former Director of Finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu.<\/p>\n
It held that trial judge Justice Mohammed Idris was no longer a judge of the Federal High Court as at the time he sat and delivered the judgement that convicted the defendants for allegedly stealing about N7.1billion from Abia state treasury.<\/p>\n
According to the Supreme Court, Justice Idris, having been elevated to the Court of Appeal before then, lacked the powers to return to sit as a High Court Judge.<\/p>\n
It held that the Fiat that was issued to him by the Court of Appeal President pursuant to section 396(7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act was unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
The apex court vacated the judgement that convicted the defendants and ordered fresh trial.<\/p>\n
Reacting to the judgment Mr Adegboruwa said: \u201cThere are several cases to be affected by this judgment now. You can imagine the time, money and energy spent in this case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is the same government that is prohibiting stay of proceedings that will have to conduct the trial de novo, giving lawyers on both sides so much job to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The human rights activist commended the apex court for speedy hearing of the appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe accelerated hearing of the appeal is commendable, given that many cases are to be affected thereby.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen lawyers agree to hear a case expeditiously, Justice will be granted by the court in the manner that society desires,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Adegboruwa also considered other lessons raised by the judgment.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWhen very serious constitutional issues are raised in a matter, it may be good for the trial court to exercise some reasonable caution to await the outcome of the appeal, so<\/p>\n
long as the appellant is not by that means seeking to prolong the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is good to fast track the hearing of cases involving serious constitutional matters, so that applications for stay in criminal matters will no longer be a headache for the prosecution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has to be a reasonable balance, between the right to fair hearing of a defendant, in respect of very serious appeals, and the power of the prosecution to have the cause heard expeditiously.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo abolish stay of proceedings via legislation and taking away the discretion of the court and the right to fair hearing of a defendant, will keep working injustice for very serious cases.<\/p>\n
\u201cI commend Chiefs Awa Kalu, SAN, Mike Ozekhome, SAN for the defence and Mr Rotimi Jacobs, SAN for the prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Ebu-Olu Adegboruwa has stated the Supreme Court\u2019s judgment, which quashed the conviction and 12-year imprisonment of former Abia State Governor, Orji Uzor-Kalu, will affect more cases. The apex court, in a unanimous decision by a seven-man panel led by Justice Amina Augie, voided Kalu\u2019s December 2019 trial for stealing about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3313,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-opinions"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t