Orji Kalu Revelation: To Get People Out Of The Way, They Are Framed For Murder

By Adesina Soyooye

The revelation shocks. But it comes from the horse’s mouth. It comes from a man who says he has seen it all and, according to him, seen and tested a huge dose of injustice.

Orji Uzor Kalu, former Abia State Governor, and now, Senate Majority Chief Whip, says that in Nigeria, people are framed for murder just to get them out of the way.

He made this shocking revelation in a statement he signed on Friday, as soon as the Supreme Court freed him from prison.

Kalu was sentenced to a 12-year prison term on 5th December, 2019, by a Federal High Court, presided over by the Hon. Justice Mohammed Lima. He was dragged to court by the EFCC for alleged fraud and corruption during his tenure as Abia State Governor.

But on Friday, the Supreme Court released him, citing lack of jurisdiction on the side of Justice Lima who, at the time he delivered the judgement, had already been elevated to the Court of Appeal.  It was based on the elevation that the SC said he had no business going to a lower Court to deliver judgement in Kalu’s case.

The SC ordered a retrial.

At the time of his release, Kalu had already spent five months in prison.

In a statement on release, Kalu, who obviously sees his stint in prison as an injustice said he would, as from now on, dedicate the remaining years of his life to fighting injustice.

He decried the injustices he saw in prison revealing: “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.”

Kalu did not, however, disclose how many of such innocent people, framed for murder just to get them out of the way, he met while in prison.

But not a few Nigerians are worried about Kalu’s revelation, and think it is something the Federal Government, the Civil Society and Amnesty International should be interested in.