The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has warned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against frittering public funds on what it described as meaningless appeal against court’s decision on alleged corruption cases concerning the former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu.
The Federal High Court had on Wednesday barred the EFCC and other agencies of the government from retrying Kalu on the N7.1billion money laundering charges earlier brought against him.
Following the court decision, the EFCC had vowed to appeal the judgment, a move HURIWA described as meaningless shadow boxing and emotional pursuit of self-help measures by the EFCC.
HURIWA said the persistent and sustained tempo of media persecution by the EFCC against the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District has graphically exposed the hierarchy of the agency as a group of persons pursuing a war of Ethno-religious vendetta against one of the most prominent Igbo South East politicians with the potency to be considered for the position of the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress in the 2023 Presidential election.
“It would seem that some reactionary elements from the Arewa Peoples Congress and the Northern Governors Forum may have penetrator the EFCC and have deployed the EFCC to weaken the possibility of the South East to present a formidable candidate for the office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in 2023,” HURIWA said.
HURIWA recalled that the court, in a judgment that was delivered by Justice Inyang Ekwo, held that the Supreme Court did not in the verdict it gave on May 8, 2020, order the retrial of either Kalu or his firm – Slok Nigeria Limited.
HURIWA said Justice Ekwo held that the Supreme Court only ordered the retrial of former Director of Finance in Abia State, Jones Udeogu, who was the Appellant before it. Consequently, he upheld a suit Kalu filed to challenge the legal propriety of his planned re-arraignment by the EFCC.