A former Governor of Abia state has been ordered by Nigeria's apex court, the Supreme Court, to bring himself forward for trial.
Orji Uzor Kalu
The Supreme Court gave the order on Friday asking the ex Abia State Governor, Orji Kalu, to submit himself for trial on the money laundering charges instituted against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2007.
The apex court had dismissed a similar appeal by an associate to the former governor, Udeh Jones Udehogow on similar grounds..
Justice Suleiman Galadima, who read the lead judgments in both appeals, upheld the concurrent decisions of the Federal High Court, Abuja and the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which had both earlier dismissed the accused persons’ objection to their trial.
The five-man panel of the apex court directed the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to assign both cases to new judges for hearing.