The Federal High Court Abuja on Tuesday adjourned until June 7 the arraignment of Senator Orji Kalu charged for alleged N7.1 billion fraud.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was to arraign Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, following a Supreme Court order that he and his co-defendants in fraud charge be retried, having quashed the 12-year jail sentence handed to them by a Federal High Court in Lagos.
Counsel to the EFCC Chile Okoronma told the court that there was a preliminary matter that needed to be resolved before Kalu could be arraigned.
According to Mr Okoronma, the prosecution had written a letter to the chief judge of the court, seeking transfer of the matter to the Lagos division of the court.
“Looking at the charge sheet, no element of any of the offences took place in Abuja.
“We will be asking that the matter be adjourned sine die (indefinitely) while we await the response from the chief judge,” Okoronma said.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, however, refused to adjourn the matter indefinitely and insisted that counsel should take a specific date to return to court.
He subsequently adjourned the matter until June 7 for a report on whether it should be transferred to Lagos or not.
