The Supreme Court has annulled the judgement that convicted and sentenced former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor-Kalu to 12 years imprisonment.
The Supreme Court declared void the judgement on Friday in a unanimous decision by a seven-man panel of Justices led by Justice Amina Augie.
Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos had sentenced Senator Kalu to 12 years imprisonment in his judgement delivered on April 24, 2019.
While Mr Udeogu was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.The court convicted Kalu, now a senator, on all the 39 counts preferred against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) charge.
The court ordered that the Slok Nig. Ltd. Should be wound up and its assets forfeited to the Federal Government.
The Supreme Court has held that the Federal High Court in Lagos acted without jurisdiction when it convicted Kalu, his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited and the former Director of Finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu.
According to the panel, the trial Justice Mohammed Liman 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.
The Supreme Court averred that Justice Liman, having been elevated to the Court of Appeal before then lacked the powers to return to sit as a High Court Judge.
The apex court, therefore, ordered the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to reassign the case for trial.