After prison stint, Orji Kalu seeks amendment to criminal justice act

Uzor Orji Kalu, chief whip of the senate, is proposing some amendments to the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) of 2015.

The bill entitled, ‘administration of criminal justice act 2015 (amendment) bill’, 2020 was introduced on Wednesday after Nelson Ayewoh, senate clerk, read its short title.

The former governor of Abia state was released from the Kuje Correctional Centre on June 2. He had spent five months in prison.

In December, a federal high court in Lagos convicted the chief whip of money laundering to the tune of N7.1 billion.

He stood trial alongside Ude Jones Udeogu, a former director of finance and account in Abia.

But on May 8, the supreme court nullified the conviction of Kalu and Udeogu on the grounds that Mohammed Idris, the trial judge, did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter since he had been elevated to the court of appeal.

The whip attended his first plenary session after his release from prison on June 9.

The bill is Kalu’s first since he resumed the plenary session.

Although the details of the amendment bill have not been made public, it may border on decongesting the prisons.

After the court nullified his conviction, Kalu lamented that over 70 percent of the population in prison are awaiting trial.

“I shall be dedicating my time henceforth to ensuring there will be justice for all Nigerians whether they are in Sokoto or Akwa Ibom or in Lagos or Maiduguri or in Jos or Enugu, or wherever they may be,” he said in a statement in May.

“A system whereby over 70% of all prison inmates population is made up of people awaiting trial cannot be allowed to continue. Situations where innocent people are falsely charged with murder just to get them out of the way does not dignify our country and cannot continue.

“Justice must now mean justice for all. That is my pledge to Nigerians.”