Skip to content
Court Case Profiles

What did the court decide?

Orji Uzor Kalu

Nigerian politician and senator for Abia North who was Governor of Abia State from 1999 to 2007, and whose 2019 fraud conviction was nullified by the Supreme Court in 2020.

Latest ruling source 6 Mar 2024Docket checked 26 Oct 20267 sources

  1. Question

    What did the court decide?

  2. Where it stands

    DecidedWhere it stands

    2 cases recorded. Most recent: Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Orji Uzor Kalu, Slok Nigeria Limited and Ude Jones Udeogu (decided).

  3. Detail

    Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Orji Uzor Kalu, Slok Nigeria Limited and Ude Jones Udeogu

    Decided
    Court
    Federal High Court, Abuja
    Case number
    FHC/ABJ/CR/56/2007
    Filed
    2007
    Parties
    Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (for the Federal Republic of Nigeria) v. Orji Uzor Kalu, Slok Nigeria Ltd and Ude Udeogu (former Director of Finance, Abia State Government House)

    What was claimed

    Fraud and money laundering involving Abia State treasury funds during his 1999–2007 governorship; amount reported as N7.1bn, N7.56bn or N7.6bn depending on source.

    What the court decided

    5 December 2019: convicted and sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment. 8 May 2020: Supreme Court (seven-member panel, lead judgment by Justice Ejembi Eko) unanimously nullified the trial and conviction because Justice Mohammed Idris delivered judgment after being sworn in as a Court of Appeal justice, and ordered the case reassigned to another judge.1 2 3

    Orji Uzor Kalu v. Federal Republic of Nigeria (application to bar retrial)

    Decided
    Court
    Federal High Court, Abuja; on appeal, Court of Appeal, Abuja
    Case number
    Appeals CA/ABJ/CV/797/2021 and CA/ABJ/CV/798/2021
    Parties
    Orji Uzor Kalu (and his company) v. Federal Republic of Nigeria / EFCC

    What was claimed

    Kalu sought an order that a second trial on the same charge would amount to double jeopardy and was not authorised by the Supreme Court judgment.

    What the court decided

    Justice Inyang Ekwo (ruling reported September 2021) prohibited the retrial of Kalu on FHC/ABJ/CR/56/2007, while permitting the case against Udeogu to proceed. 6 March 2024: Court of Appeal (judgment delivered by Justice Joseph Oyewole) struck out the Federal Government's two appeals for a defective record of appeal.4 5 6

  4. Judgments and reports

    1. SecondarySupreme Court nullifies corruption trial and conviction of ex-Governor Orji Uzor KaluPolicy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC Legist) · 13 May 2020
    2. SecondaryOrji Kalu will face immediate retrial, says EFCCTheCable · May 2020
    3. SecondaryAfter more than 150 days in prison, Kalu returns as Senate Chief WhipICIR · 9 Jun 2020
    4. SecondaryCourt bars EFCC from retrying Orji Kalu on N7.1bn money laundering chargeICIR · 29 Sep 2021
    5. SecondaryAppeal court rejects FG's bid to retry Orji Kalu fraud caseICIR · 6 Mar 2024
    6. SecondaryAppeal court rejects FG's bid to re-prosecute Orji KaluChannels Television · Mar 2024

Legal status: Public Figure Record Verified

Docket note

26 Oct 2026 Published after review.

Something wrong? Tell the editors, with a source. Identifier orji-uzor-kalu.