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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThe apex court\u2019s judgment was on the grounds that a Justice\nof the Court of Appeal, Justice Mohammed Idris, who handed down the conviction\nin December 2019, lacked the power to return to the Federal High Court to\nconclude the case which he had partly heard before his elevation to the higher\nbench.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The apex court also nullified Section 396(7) of the\nAdministration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 which had enabled the then\nPresident of the Court of Appeal, Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa (retd), to issue\nfiat to Justice Idris to return to the Federal High Court to conclude the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Ejembi Eko delivered the apex court\u2019s lead judgment\nand other members of the panel, comprising, Justices Rhodes-Vivour, Mary Odili,\nOlukayode Ariwoola, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Inyang Okoro and Amina Augie\nconsented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Few days after the Federal High Court had convicted Kalu,\nthe then President of the Court of Appeal, Bulkachuwa, on December 9, 2019 had\nlauded the completion of the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Bulkachuwa attributed the credit to the provision of\nsection 396(7) of ACJA, 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She spoke in Abuja at a national workshop organised by the\nCentre for Socio-Legal Studies in collaboration with Federal Ministry of\nJustice on setting of minimum standards for the effective implementation of\nACJA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Bulkachuwa said at the event that she had issued\nfiats 50 times to about eight Justices of the Court of Appeal, including\nJustice Idris, to enable them to conclude such part-heard cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said Justice Idris, in addition to Kalu\u2019s case, had\nconcluded 15 cases through the application of the provision of section 396(7)\nof ACJA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She added, \u201cI have given fiats at least 50 times to about\neight Justices of the Court of Appeal to go back and complete their\nassignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most recent is that of Justice Idris when he completed\nthe matter of Orji Kalu. But before then, he had completed about 15 matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSimilarly, Justice Talba, and Justice Umar, Justice Ojo\nfrom the FCT High Court; and from the Federal High Court were Justices Idris,\nJustice Aliyu, I think about five of them from there, who have completed\nmatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think this is a big plus for the Administration of\nCriminal Justice Act because matters get to be completed within the shortest\ntime possible and decisively. I have not seen any of the matters that have come\non appeal yet. I have not heard. Maybe that is the end of the matter as it is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The number of such fiats issued after the event in December\ncould not be ascertained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Mr Femi Falana\n(SAN), advised on Saturday that, \u201cin the light of the judgment of the Supreme\nCourt, all the cases that have been benefitting from the application of the\nnullified provision of ACJA have to be immediately terminated and reassigned to\nstart afresh\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said even the ones that had been concluded like the\nKalu\u2019s case had to start afresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He described the apex court\u2019s judgment as \u201ca reversal of the\ngains of the Administration of Justice Act\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A lawyer and former National President, Committee for the\nDefence of Human Rights, Mr Malachy Ugwummadu, noted that \u201cthe approximately\n500 sections of the ACJA 2015 including Section 396 under review were direct\nlegislative responses and reform efforts to cure most of the seemingly intractable\nchallenges in our criminal justice system\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He said previous decisions of the Supreme Court in cases of\nOgbuanyinya V. Okudo, and Bichi V. Shakarau, the apex court and the Court of\nAppeal, delivered a judgment similar to Friday\u2019s verdict of the apex court\npredated the enactment of the ACJA. He noted however that the judgment casts\n\u201cserious doubts on the credibility, legal and policy research and consultations\nthat are made and scrutinised before legislations are churned out to achieve\ncertain dynamics and progressive objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ade Adesomoju The Friday\u2019s judgment of the Supreme Court which nullified the trial and conviction of a former governor of Abia State, Orji Kalu, will cause an automatic reversal of gains already recorded in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[380,379],"class_list":["post-1429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-polity-politics-governance","tag-orji-kalu","tag-supreme-court"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/towncryyers.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/033A4424.jpg?fit=1024%2C570&ssl=1\")
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