By Ayo Kehinde
Senate Chief Whip and former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for money laundering by a Lagos High Court.
The court also ordered his company, SLOK, used to carry out the fraud, to be wound up.
An associate of the Senator, Udeh Udeogu, also implicated in the fraud was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Handing down the judgment on Thursday, Justice Idris Mohammed said the Senate Chief whip was guilty of the 39 counts charges involving N7.65 bn, filed against him and his aide, by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
Kalu, a former governor on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, is currently a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, on whose platform he represents Abia North Senatorial District in the Senate.
Udeogu, was his Director of Finance and Accounts at the Abia State Government House during his tenure as governor
According to the EFCC, Kalu, “who was Abia State Governor between 1999 and 2007, did procure Slok Nigeria Limited – a company solely owned by you and members of your family – to retain in its account, domiciled with the then Inland Bank Plc, Apapa branch, Lagos, an aggregate sum of N7,197,871,208.7 on your behalf.”
The N7.1 billion, it said, “formed part of the funds illegally derived from the treasury of the Abia State Government and which was converted into several bank drafts before they were paid into the said company’s account.”
The prosecuting counsel, Rotimi Jacobs, said the ex-governor violated Section 17(c) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2004, and was liable to be punished under Section 16 of the same Act.
Apart from the N7.1bn, which he was accused of laundering, the Senate Chief Whip and the other defendants were also accused of receiving a total of N460 million, stolen from the Abia State Government treasury between July and December 2002.
Jacobs said they breached Section 427 of the Criminal Code Act, Cap 77, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 1990.
