Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja on Wednesday struck out an appeal the Federal Government filed to reopen the trial of a former governor of Abia Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu.

The appellate court, in a unanimous decision by a three-member panel of justices, held that the record of appeal Federal Government transmitted before it was incompetent.

In the lead verdict that was delivered by Justice J. O. K. Oyewole, the court held that FG failed to properly transmit the record as prescribed by its extant rules, adding that it was neither stamped nor the official designation of the person who signed it indicated.

The appellate court held that the flaw in the record that was brought before it vitiated the competence of the entire appeal.

Consequently, it struck out the two appeals which FG filed against Kalu and his firm.

It will be recalled that Kalu, who piloted the affairs of Abia State from 1999 to 2007, was earlier convicted and handed a 12-year jail term by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court.

The trial court convicted him alongside his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited, and a former Director of Finance in the state, Jones Udeogu.

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had alleged that the defendants pilfered about N7.1 billion from the Abia State Treasury.