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A Critical Linguistic Analysis of Court Judgements on Dr. Orji 

Uzo Kalu’s Prosecution 

 

Obinwogu Chinedu Chinwe 1 Vincent Obobolo2   

University of Port Harcourt   

    presdo2000@gmail.com1, vincentobobolo@uniport.edu.ng2                                                                      

 

Abstract 

The past few decades saw a growing interest in the study of the 

relationship between language and law. This study attempts a 

systemic functional linguistic investigation of court judgement on Dr 

Orji Uzo Kalu’s indictment in a criminal case of corruption and 

money laundering. Systemic functional linguistics (SFL), the world 

of experience has three different forms of representation each 

realized by three different process types. Because different 

transitivity choices achieve different communicative effects, we 

expect the distribution process to vary according to domain, genre 

and context. The study explored the transitivity choices and patterns 

of language in relation to power in legal discourses. Using 

Halliday’s (1994) systemic functional linguistics (ideational 

metafunction) as a theoretical base, the paper explored the federal 

and the Supreme Court judgment texts randomly selected and 

retrieved from the courts’ website. The frequency of occurrence in 

the representation of ideational processes and participants were 

tabulated for the comparison of the processes in the analysed 

linguistic units. Findings reveal that the verbal process was used 

mostly by the court judges, in different modes of speech such as; 

commanding, stating or asking. It shows that the process was used 

mostly by the court as a way of highlighting how linguistic 

investigation of legal document can represent the true ideology of 

mailto:presdo2000@gmail.com1
mailto:vincentobobolo@uniport.edu.ng2


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the judgement to the reader, as well as the significance of the stance 

taken by the court throughout the whole judgement both at the 

federal the Supreme courts. The study recommended for more 

research in the critical area of judicial interpretation as well as the 

involvement of forensic linguistic experts in the criminal justice 

system of Nigeria. 

Keywords: functional linguistics, ideational, judgement, process, 

discourse  

                                          

1. Introduction 

Language generally is a means of communication which has a 

tremendous influence on the life of an individual. There are however 

variations in the use of language which shows their multiple 

dimensions; language of law or language in the legal system are part 

of it. Language can be used to express sentiments, grief, attitude, 

comfort, points of view, which can be written or spoken. From a 

functional perspective, the relationship between language and 

society has been in existence in very early ages. According to 

Halliday (1964, 1994) systematic functional linguistics has in recent 

times provided a scientific, informative, useful, and explanatory 

framework on the relationship between the internal structures of 

language, external relations associated with the phenomenon being 

analysed as well as the investigation of language as strategic 

meaning making resource. 

In Halliday’s (1994) metafunctions, ideation revolves 

around people’s experience and perceptions of reality, physical 

material, as well as the symbolic interpretations of their experiences. 

The content of ideation is also concerned with not only the activities 

of the discourse, but also the individuals participating in the 

activities. Looking at a real-life situation, the criminal or civil law 

system of a country can be taken into consideration. However, the 



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judgements of the court are part of the legal discourse. These 

documents contain decisions, rules, as well as statutes 

interpretations presented by the judge or the jury in meticulous case 

to case bases. These decisions are of high importance as they are 

made known to members of the public in the court or the media. 

Looking at this from a legal discourse perspective, a court 

judgement originates from lawsuit filed, upon which the court takes 

a formal decision. Moreover, the court may also pass a range of 

orders in terms of verdicts depending on the nature of the filed 

lawsuits; for example, they may sentence a party to prison in both 

criminal and civil matters and stipulate the duration or present a 

decision. Thus, there is a need to critically evaluate the court 

decision in order to formulate precise and meticulous judgement 

texts which may not only be used as public accounts but also for 

legal education. 

The administration of the criminal justice system for 

political elites in Nigeria has been widely criticized in recent times 

by the media. It is difficult to understand and comprehend the 

interpretations of some of these high-profile court judgement texts 

and establish the truth and differences in the decisions of related 

cases. It is also difficult to understand how ideologies and opinions 

are manifested in some of these high-profile legal documents 

However, this present study scrutinizes and analyses the 

relationship between language and ideology and how such 

relationship is represented in the analysis of the court text. Through 

systemic functional linguistics developed by M. A. K Halliday, an 

attempt is made to show how the judgement texts are working 

apparatus of ideology as well as meaning representations, which are 

not obviously recognized by the readers. A critical linguistic 

investigation of what lies underneath these texts is however 

essential. The ideational transitivity which is a meaning- based 



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linguistic analysis will describe not only the activities surrounding 

Dr. Kalu’s prosecution and court judgments, but also the individuals 

participating in the activities of the court case.  

1.1 Statement of the Problem  

Diverse studies have been conducted on the idiosyncratic nature of 

courtroom language especially in the area of interrogation and 

questioning of witnesses. The focus generally has always been on 

the syntactic and stylistic features of legal documents and court 

judgement texts. But to the best of my knowledge, none have looked 

at a court judgement of a distinguished Senator of the Federal 

Republic in order to understand and comprehend the judge 

interpretations, from a systemic functional linguistic perspective. 

Interest in this study, therefore, emerges from the need to 

reveal how linguistic tools are used to represent legal issues in the 

court and to identify the ideology behind such representation. Again, 

with the dearth of literature present in the legal linguistics of 

developing countries and particularly in the Nigerian context, the 

present study aims to fill these linguistic gaps and shed further light 

on the concept itself.  Halliday’s (1994) systemic functional 

linguistics is used as a theoretical base for legal text analysis in such 

a way that it is possible to say useful things about any text, including 

the complex and technical nature of court judgement of a 

distinguished Senator of the Federal Republic. The aim of this study 

is to attempt a critical linguistic analysis of Orji Uzo Kalu’s Court 

judgments in order to examine the type of ideational process 

predominantly used in the analysis of Orji Uzo Kalu’s Court 

judgments and to examine the extent to which these processes have 

helped in the comprehension and understanding of the judgement 

text. 

 



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2.1 Literature review 

2.1.1 Conceptual Review 

2.1.1.1 Transitivity Processes.  

According to Matthiessen & Halliday, (1997), the process 

constituent can be considered in the following manner: The 

transitivity process contains six functional processes. Accordingly, 

the process is realized by the verb and is considered as the key 

element on which other element rely on. They are enumerated 

below: 

 

 Material verbs 

Many Scholars have used the material process as a research 

paradigm. The material process is categorized into happenings and 

doings. The two main area of the material process are the agent 

(subject) and the goal or achievement. The actor is the one carrying 

out the process and usually a subject and the goal is the one getting 

affected by the process. The actor could be a human as well as an 

inanimate object. They are also referred to as a process that involves 

doings and happenings. In this process, participants are actors, 

goals, recipients, and clients. Circumstances tell about the manner, 

place, and time periods of these happenings. 

 Mental Process 

The mental process connotes the senses and emotions. It has been 

divided into four sub types which include cognition, perception, 

affection, and desires. There is a psychological and philosophical 

association of the actors with their actions in this process. The 

mental process mainly talks about phenomenon and senser. 

 

 



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 Relational Process 

The relational process is linked to correlation or relationship 

between certain abstract objects. This process is used to explain the 

relationship between ideals and their beliefs. The relational process 

helps to define a relationship or connect a relationship between two 

concepts. Relational process can be broken down into five sub-

types: possessive, circumstantial, identifying, attributive, and 

intensive. For the possessive process, the participants can express 

their possession towards something. In the circumstantial scheme, 

the relative process is about pointing implicitly at someone’s 

wrongdoing, but not proving that unequivocally. In the identifying 

scheme, the participants can be changed, which may result to a shift 

in the grammatical role. The attribute mechanism does not require 

the participants to be reversed but it occasionally does.  

 

 Verbal process  

Halliday (2009) remarks that the verbal process is a process of 

saying which usually contributes to the creation of narratives by 

setting up distinctive dialogues and reported speech. There is always 

a correlation between mental and verbal processes. This is because 

the act of saying does not occur alone. There is a whole process of 

mental work behind and which is related to the mind. There are three 

participants of the verbal process which includes the Sayer or the 

addresser in the verbal process of transitivity, the receiver or the 

addressee, or the entity targeted by the saying, and verbiage which 

is the content of what is said. The participants are called sayers who 

say something to the recipient, to whom something is being said or 

addressed, and the verbiage to which the utterances are being made. 

The verbal process consists of saying verbs such as sayer, verbiage, 

receiver, and target. Receiver refers to the entity at the receiving end. 



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It involves the addressee, who is identified as an object by the 

saying. 

 

 Behavioural Process 

The behavioural process is a psychological process. It combines the 

elements of mental and material processes such as dreaming and 

stating. It coexists with behaviour. It falls in dimensions of material 

and mental processes. Usually, behavioural processes are always 

intransitive and include only the participant as an agent. The main 

participant in this process is called a behaver. If there are two 

participants in a process, then the second one is coined as behaviour. 

 

 Existential Process 

Existential process is the most complicated of all process verbs. It 

includes existential beings which are attributed to the subject’s role. 

The standard verb used is the “be” verb and any time you see a 

construction; you have got an existential cycle. The existential 

process does not have any representation because it has no 

distinctive features and signifies only the existence of an event or a 

material. This process explains an entity, an action, a state of being, 

an event or a subject.  In an existential process, there is also only 

one actor and progressives are mostly prohibited. The Existent is a 

literal process that is existentially understood. 

 

2.1.1.2 Courtroom Discourse 

According to van Dijk (1997), discourse analysis focuses on 

tangible articulated cases of conversations and does not concentrate 

on expressions which may be subjective and hence, misleading in 

the nature of goal or delineating from the target point. For this 

reason, the present study focuses on the case of Dr Orji Uzo Kalu’s 

court Judgement and aims to extract information from the transcript 



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of the judgement text both at the Supreme Court and the Federal 

High Court. Critical discourse analysis on the other hand helps to 

unveil ideologies, hidden philosophies, and limitations of the text. It 

perceives language as a social phenomenon and consequently can 

analyse language critically through an investigation of the cultural 

practices and ideologies of the society in relation to power.  

One significant observation about the courtroom discourses 

is in relation to the variations of power which have been shown to 

form the very foundation of the tenets of speech used within the text. 

It is easy to observe that during the court proceedings, all members 

are, to a certain degree, obliged differentially in the trial process. 

The power of the judge stands and is seen as the most effective and 

ultimate compared to that of the witnesses. Another significant 

feature of the courtroom discourse is the sequence of story 

presentation. In this present study, which is a criminal case, the 

judgement text which is both written and spoken are built by 

connecting the presented evidence from both the prosecuting and the 

defence counsels. Therefore, the judge not only acknowledges the 

contradicting stories but also chooses the very same to form his own 

ultimate ground for a final decision. 

In any given trial, a case is opened by presenting a summary 

of the proceedings to be followed and ends after the arguments of 

the prosecuting and defence counsel’s examination of all the 

witnesses are presented by the judge before a stance is reached. 

Mellinkoff (1963), states that the language of the law is wordy, 

unclear, pompous, and dull. This is observed at the lexical level. 

Power and ideology also play an important role in the moulding of 

courtroom judgements. This is because political groups and 

governmental institutions based on their status and domain use their 

own language and make colloquial generalizations and ideologies 

for their arguments 



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2.2 Empirical Review 

In its broadest sense, all areas where language and law intersect are 

referred to as legal linguistics or forensic linguistics. The 10th 

Biannual Conference of the International Association of Forensic 

Linguistics (1994) enumerated four major areas of legal linguistics. 

It includes language and law, language in the legal process, language 

as evidence, research and teaching in forensic testimony. Language 

and law are further grouped into comprehensibility of legal 

documents, analysis, interpretation and history of legal texts. Others 

include multilingual matters in legal texts, discourse analysis of 

legal resources, language rights, power and law, media and law. 

The major focus of legal linguistics is the discovery of 

hidden truth and proper deliverance of justice in the legal system or 

setting.  McMenamin (2002) remarks that the relationship between 

language, crime and law can be detected, for instance, in the analysis 

of courtroom discourse, courtroom interpretation, comprehensibility 

of legal documents, police reports, police suspects interrogations, 

and police suspect statements. Again, language is an evidence of 

truth. This means that the true potential of language can be used for 

investigation, deliverance of justice and the rule of law as well as to 

solve the problem of insecurity in a country. 

Language scholars have embarked on various academic, 

scholarly works in the interpretation of legal documents, 

interpretation of semantic and pragmatic meaning in a legal context 

and ambiguity in court judgments. Roger Shuy (2006, 2007) wrote 

extensively on the application of linguistics in different court cases, 

especially in the area of discourse analysis and pragmatics. He has 

also appeared in various courts as an expert witness.  

The interests in the relationship between language, law and 

crime have recently progressed in the developing countries of the 

world.  Shuy has contributed immensely in series of books on his 



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experiences as an expert witness in and out of court. In Europe and 

America, various aspects of linguistic interpretation of meaning in 

court judgments have been done. Such interpretation ranges from 

ambiguity and vagueness in the criminal justice system. Richland 

(2008) work helped in the understanding of legal discourse analyses 

through the micro-examination of transcripts of courtroom 

recordings. Following the customs which have affected courtroom 

functioning, he concluded that social truths are primarily made 

through face-to-face interaction. Furthermore, the author draws 

another conclusion that the recent advancements in the field of 

linguistic anthropological examination of language have also been 

central to forming and moulding point-of-views on legal discourse 

from ideologies to the basic semiotics.  

The most interesting progress in the study of the relationship 

between language and law is the 10th international conference held 

at the University of Birmingham. It provided more opportunities for 

research than ever before. Solan (1994,1998,2011) in his paper on 

ethical and moral issues in forensic linguistics discussed some 

interesting examples on how judges take advantage of linguistic 

ambiguity to flout the rule of law .He also looked at some American 

court cases where statute’ is susceptible to multiple interpretations 

either as a result of syntactic or lexical ambiguity. Martin and Rose 

(2003) explored how clause structures can be expressed through 

simultaneous strands of meanings. Halliday (1994) exhibits these 

language meta-functions into three parts: ideation, interpersonal, 

and textual. 

Despite its reputable importance, there is a dearth of the 

linguistic research of such a nature in the Nigerian context to the 

best of my knowledge. The current paper attempts to study the 

ideational process verbs used by the judge that would explicate the 

direction of the ideology taken by each clause of the document. 



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2.3 Theoretical Framework 

2.3.1 Halliday Systemic Functional Linguistics 

Linguists study language in a systematic way just like it is in other 

fields of Science. The scientific study of language operates in 

various levels of morphology, phonology, semantics, and 

pragmatics. The critical linguistic approach undertaken for this 

present study is based on the concept of Halliday’s (1994) Systemic 

Functional Grammar. It is the theory adopted as a model for a critical 

linguistic analysis of Orji Uzor Kalu’s court judgements.  Halliday’s 

systemic functional linguistics is a theory of linguistics that looks at 

not only language, but other semiotic systems as a system of choices. 

According to Coffin (2001), Systemic functional linguistics, though 

primarily a linguistic theory, is also concerned with the effect of 

culture and society on language. The theory posits that all speakers 

are influenced by the economic/social system in which they live and 

by the roles they inhabit within these systems. Gregory (1980) 

presented Halliday’s developing and functional theory of language. 

Language users are always privileged to make choices from a wide 

range of options in order to create a text which may be a written or 

spoken. It describes three metafunctions of language. From these 

three, the present study attempts to focus on the Ideational meaning 

or representational clause. 

Transitivity analysis entails the ideational meta-function. It 

shows the representational meaning of a text. Transitivity analysis 

is applicable to the ideational mechanism. Its major focus is on the 

language’s semiotic material and looks to the speaker’s grammatical 

decisions regarding his experiences. Halliday and Matthiessen 

(2013) assert that ideational meta-function observes the 

representation of the linguistic order that we impose on the flow of 

events as we experience them. The grammatical structure to which 

this meta-function refers is called transitivity. When analysing 



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language for its experiential functions, a clause is broken down into 

three functional elements of participant, process and circumstance. 

The Participant element, usually the subject of the clause, can be 

termed as the actor, agent, goal, carrier or sayer of the clause. The 

Process constituent, the central verb of the clause, can also be broken 

down into three separate elements and described as material, 

relational and projecting. The circumstance element can be referred 

to as the where, when, how, why, with whom or as what the process 

of the clause occurred.  

3. Methodology 

3.1 Research Design 

The present study adopted the methodology of qualitative research. 

The text analyses are performed with the use of Halliday’s (1985) 

metafunctions of language. The metafunction of ideation is used for 

the analysis of the discourse. Through the application of the 

ideational function of Systemic functional linguistics, clauses are 

selected from the court judgement text, in order to identify the 

ideological intents in the text as well as to realize the meaning and 

how reality is depicted in legal language. 

3.2 Research Sample 
The research sample for the study is the original Kalu’s Case 

Judgement transcript released by the Court of Nigeria on its official 

website. The purposive sampling technique is adopted in the 

Selection of the clauses to be analysed. A total of 19 samples have 

been collected, covering and representing the two hundred and 

ninety-one (291) pages of the Federal High Court and fifty-one (51) 

pages of Supreme Court legal documents. 

 

 

 



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4. Ideational Processes in Text 

Table 1 and 2 below shows the comparison of the processes in the 

analysed linguistic units. Moreover, the interpretation and 

discussion on the number of occurrences have also been included 

below. 

            Table 1 Ideational Process in Federal High Court 

Judgment Text   

S/N Ideational 

Processes in 

Federal High 

Court Texts(PC 

FOR EFCC 

&DCR) 

Frequency of 

Process Count 

Percentage of 

each Process 

Count 

1 Material Process 110 19.6% 

2 Verbal Process 210 37.5% 

3 Mental Process 8 1.4% 

4 Relational Process 100 17.8% 

5 Behavioral 

Process 

26 4.6% 

6 Existential Process 105 18.7% 

 Total 559  

Prosecution counsel (PC for EFCC), Defence counsel (DC for 

respondents) 



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Table 2 Ideational Processes in Supreme Court Judgment Text   

S/N Ideational 

Processes in 

Supreme Court 

texts(ASC&CJ) 

Frequency of 

Process count 

Percentage of 

each Process 

Count 

1 Material Process 10 3.14% 

2 Verbal Process 146 49.8% 

3 Mental  Process 5 1.7% 

4 Relational Process 96 32.7% 

5 Behavioral Process 36 12.2% 

6 Existential Process 0 0 

 Total 293  

Advocate to Supreme Court respondents and appellants (ASC) 

& CJ 

 

Findings from the table reveal that out of all the processes in the 

federal high court and Supreme Court judgement texts, the use of 

the verbal process is highest in percentage in comparison with other 

participants. The verbal process is a large category that makes use 

of different modes of speech such as commanding, asking and 

stating. This is the process used mostly by the court judges in 

delivering judgement where no external factor has an influence as 

well as showing the stance taken by the court On Dr Orji Uzo Kalu 

prosecution. 



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Again, the behavioural process describes the psychological 

behaviour of the counsels to the respondents. The use of the process 

shows the speaker’s subjective stance to what is being said. 

Therefore, their statements as presented by the judge show a high 

ratio of being biased than non-biased. Advocates to the prosecution 

and defendants, the chief judge and advocate to the supreme court 

also made high use of relational process,32.7%+ 17.8%=50.5% in 

total showing attributes of being or having. This shows the speaker’s 

need for authentication which lowers their chances of being 

objective. Finally, the existential processes are used mostly by the 

court in stating known facts especially as it relates to the constitution 

of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 

4.2 Analysis of Selected Parts of the Text 
The extract below presents selected examples from the text with 

detailed analysis and discussion. A total of 19 examples were 

randomly selected from the Federal High Court and Supreme Court 

judgement on Dr Orji Uzo Kalu’s prosecution. They fall into one or 

two categories in the table. The analysis of samples 1 to 12 below 

are selected randomly from the two hundred and ninety-one pages 

(291) federal high court judgement text, presented by Justice M.B 

Idris on the 5th day of December 2019. Charge no: 

FHC/ABJ/CR/56/07. 

Sample 1 (FHC): The defendants were charged before the court 

on a 107-count charge alleging the theft and laundering of 

2.6billion naira (sample 1 FHC judgement text). 

Sample 2 (FHC): The defendants were alleged to have 

committed the offences contained in the amended charge of 

July 2018 as follows. (Sample 2 FHC) 

Sample 1 above, Judgement text from Federal High Court (FHC) 

clearly states something which has already been done and existed 



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for the purpose of providing information; hence this would come 

under the category of verbal process. Sample 2 shows that there are 

various instances of verbal process in the federal judgement text 

where the thirty-nine (39) count charges were stated.  

Sample 3(FHC); That you Orji Uzo KALU BETWEEN 13th 

August, 2003 and 9th  October, 2003 whilst being the executive 

governor of Abia state within the jurisdiction of this honourable 

court did procure SLOK NIGERIA LIMITED(a company 

owned by you and members of your family) to retain in its 

account domiciled with the first Inland Bank Plc the sum of two 

hundred million naira on your behalf which formed part of the 

funds illegally derived from the treasury of Abia state 

government through standard trust  and you hereby committed 

an offence to section 17(c0 of the money laundering(prohibition) 

Act, 2003 and punishable under section 16 of the same act “ 

Sample 4(FHC); The counsel to the first defendant 

(CHUKWUKA OBIDIKE) filled their final written address 

dated 19th of September. 

The sample 3 above being the first count charge against the 

defendant is a combination of both material process and the verbal 

process. The statement performs a material process within which; 

“Orji Uzo Kalu” in line one is the actor, “procure” in line 2 is the 

process and “SLOK Nigeria limited” also in line 2 is the goal. These 

lines which are also presented by the justice M.B Idris mainly show 

the use of the verbal process in which the speaker delivers an 

unbending statement to the reader, clarifying the simple words as to 

what is and what shall be if it is proved beyond all reasonable doubt 

as stipulated in the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. There are 

many other instances of count charges in the judgement text ranging 

from count 1 to 39. In all the count charges, there are more material 

and the verbal processes whose percentage frequency is represented 



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in the table above. Sample 4 above represents that the counsel to Dr. 

Orji Uzo Kalu has filed various instances of opinions regarding the 

innocence of his client.  

Sample 5(FHC); The 1st defendant submitted that the absence 

of a preliminary report nullifies the case of the prosecution. The 

leaned counsel to the 1st defendant argued that accusing the 

first defendant of laundering an amount of money which 

prevaricates from time to time is certainly clogging the 

possibility of proof beyond reasonable doubt and this is usually 

the result of improper and incomplete criminal investigation 

which the law frown at 

Sample 6(FHC); The 1ST DEFENDANTS counsel submitted 

that incomplete investigation cast enormous doubt on the 

charge against the 1st defendant and ought to be resolved in 

favour of the 1st defendant 

The statement 5 is one of the examples of the counsel’s opinion on 

the findings of the EFCC against Dr. Orji Uzo Kalu. Through this 

verbal process, the benefit of doubt is given to the first respondent 

(Dr. Orji Uzo Kalu), signifying the relation of the EFCC findings by 

attributing it to being ‘clogging the possibility of proof beyond 

reasonable doubt’ It can be said that the speaker through his words 

wants to emphasize the biased connotations that are being portrayed 

by the EFCC, allowing not only the speaker but also the reader to 

give benefit of doubt to the first respondent which is Dr. Orji Uzo 

Kalu. Sample 6 above is another instance of verbal and relational 

process as explained in sentence 5 above.  

Sample 7(FHC); the first defendant urged the court to agree, 

that it is extremely unfair, unconstitutional and against 

established international practices for a defendant against 

whom a 107, 0r 112 or 34 or 39 count charge as the case may be, 

has been preferred, to be confronted with the petition against 



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him a clear two(2) years after the said petition was received and 

makes nonsense of the presumption of innocence as prescribed 

by section 36(5) of the constitution of the federal republic of 

Nigeria 1999(as amended) 

Sample 8(FHC);The learned counsel to the 1st defendant 

contended that during the material time of investigation, the 1st 

defendant was equally never confronted with the allegedly 

purchased drafts, cheques and other financial instruments 

which are the subject matter of the charge for his comments 

and/or explanation and he was never confronted with EXH Y12( 

Termed suspicious transactions) to elicit his reaction or 

comment thereon, if any. 

Behavioural process is seen in the chosen sample 7 above as the 

speaker uses the words, “extremely unfair, unconstitutional and 

against established international practices” to intensify the effects of 

the said petition by the EFCC. The importance of “presumption of 

innocence” is depicted using relational process, where it shows the 

attributing “presumption” to the carrier which is “innocence” 

In Sample 8, behavioural process is seen depicted in the line 

as the learned counsel to the defendant shows an unjust and unfair 

behaviour attributed to the EFCC as regards to their investigation. 

In the line we see “…the first defendant was equally never 

confronted with the allegedly purchased drafts, cheques or other 

financial instruments which are the subject matter of charge” 

Through the analysis of these lines, it can be predicted that the judge 

has shown unbiased attitude towards the respondents by taking in 

account the unethical doings of the EFCC. There are many other 

instances of behavioural and relational process as seen in the case 

presented by the defence counsel. 

Sample 9 (FHC); It is the argument of the prosecution that from 

their evidence before this court, they have clearly demonstrated 



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that the funds used to raise the drafts were withdrawals made 

from Government house…he prosecution by circumstantial 

evidence adduced the manner/circumstances in which those 

funds were handled by the officials of Abia state government 

Sample10 (FHC). The prosecution in every criminal case must 

prove the guilt of the defendant with compelling evidence. It 

must be clearly and undoubtedly proved. 

In statement 9 above, relational process and behavioural process 

were detected. In the Second and third line, it shows the relation of 

“funds used to raise drafts by the ex-Governor” as the withdrawals 

made from the government house account. In the Succeeding line, 

the attitude of the writer, in this case the justice M. D Idris behaviour 

towards the 1st and 2nd defendant in the line” …. adduced the 

manner/circumstances “ shows the attitude of the prosecution 

counsel to the first respondent. 

Existential and verbal process is evident in these lines of 

statement 10 above. Through this statement, the reader is educated 

on what is, what exists and how the court will be handling a criminal 

case of that nature as stipulated in the constitution. It also gives the 

reader affirmation that nothing will go unclarified. This also shows 

the criminal justice system rules of the court in reaching a 

conclusion on the case. Indeed, pages 96 to 115 of the Orji Uzo 

Kalu’s judgement text explain how the prosecution must prove its 

case against the defendants beyond all reasonable doubts. 

Existential and verbal processes were detected in these pages.  

 

Sample 11 (FHC): From the totality of evidence led by the 

prosecution and by considering the ingredients of the offence 

above, it is clear that the 1st defendant did procure the 3rd 

defendant……………. The 1st and 3rd defendant are therefore 

guilty of counts 1 and 12 



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Sample 12 (FHC): The defendants are no doubt first time 

offenders, and for this reason, I shall tamper justice with some 

mercy in line with the dictates of the law. The convicts are 

hereby sentenced as follows…….5, 12……Yrs. imprisonment as 

the count progresses 

The sample in 11 above is taken from the commentary of Justice 

M.B Idris. It shows the use of the verbal process through which he 

simply states what should be. It can also be said to be a part of the 

existential process, as the speaker is affirming only what already 

exist.  From pages 149 to 291 of the court judgement text, the judge 

recounts the arguments of the prosecuting and defence counsels 

using mostly the verbal process, existential process and material 

process. However, in the last statement 12, we see a combination of 

verbal and material process as in “the convicts are hereby sentenced 

as follows” 

Below is the analysis of samples 13 to 17, selected randomly 

from the fifty-one (51) pages of the Supreme Court Judgement text, 

presented by Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria at Abuja, 

on Friday 8th may, 2020. SC.622C/2019. 

Sample 13, Supreme Court (SC) Judgement text: On 31st 

October 2016 at the federal high court, Lagos division, the 

appellant, and the 2nd and 3rd respondents were arraigned 

before the honourable, justice M.B Idris-judge of the federal 

high court on several criminal allegations or charges 

Sample 14(SC); The criminal justice act, 2015 under which the 

president, court of appeal issued the FIAT/Permission 

pursuant to section 396(7) ……. does not exist in the corpus of 

the laws of the federation of Nigeria. 

Sample 13 is a simple material process in which, “the appellants, 

and the respondents are the actors in the process, while “arraigned” 

is the process and appearing before the court represented by the 



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judge is the goal. In sample 14 above, relational process is depicted 

as “The permission does not exist in the laws of the federation of 

Nigeria. 

Sample15(SC): That a judge elevated or appointed to a higher 

court would cease to be a judge of the court from which he was 

elevated and would therefore lack the requisite jurisdiction to 

conclude his part heard matter in court from which he was 

elevated was/ is still  extant. 

Sample 16: The honourable M.B Idris was on the 20th June, 

2018, elevated to the court of Appeal as justice of the court. On 

22nd June 2018, the honourable, justice M.B Idris took his oath 

as justice of the court of appeal and had from his said elevation 

ceased to be a judge of the federal high court 

Sample 15 above is the commentary of the court in which a basic 

verbal and existential process can be seen. The court is stating in 

clear words through the chief judge what shall be done and what 

ought to be. It also conveys the limitations of the judgement of the 

federal high court by making sure that the reader, as well as the 

respondents know of the consequences of the directive given to the 

judge M.B Idris to continue with a case after his elevation from the 

Federal High Court Judge to the court of Appeal. 

Sample 1 and 16 above, clearly states something which has 

already been done and which only exists for the purpose of 

providing information, hence can be grouped as verbal process. 

Again, in statement 16, we also see the use of relational process. At 

first, we see the relation of Justice M.B Idris as a judge of the Court 

of Appeal after his elevation. Secondly, we also see the nullification 

of the relationship between him and the Federal High Court as “he 

ceased to be a judge of the federal high court” after his elevation as 

an Appeal Court Judge. 



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Sample 17(SC); Section 396(7) of the ACJA, pursuant to which 

the PCA purported to act, cannot override the clear provisions 

of the constitution by donating power to a justice of the court of 

appeal to continue to sit as a high court judge for whatever 

purpose. The provision is inconsistent with sections 253 of the 

constitution. 

Sample 18(SC); The national assembly, in view of the 

supremacy provision of the constitution, in section 1 therefore 

could not have intended that audacious insubordination to the 

constitution, or state of absurd fool hardiness of legislating into 

section 396(7) of the ACJA, 2015 

Sample 19(SC); I hereby allow this appeal. Section 396(7) of the 

ACJA, 2015 is, in my own firm view, an unnecessarily gratuitous 

legislative interference with, intrusion into or an outright 

usurpation of the appointing powers of the executive arm 

consigned specifically to the president of the federal republic of 

Nigeria by constitution in section 250(1) and 238(2) 

Verbal process is also seen in sample 17 above, in which a statement 

has been stated explaining what is and what is not. It also portrays a 

relational process in which it nullifies the relationship between 

“Section 396(7) of the ACJA” and “sections 253 of the 

constitution” by describing it as been inconsistent. 

In sample 18, we see the attitude of the writer, that is, the 

judge’s behaviour towards the provision of section 396(&) of the 

ACJA; in the line”…… “audacious insubordination and absurd fool 

hardiness of legislating” is used by Chief judge to depict the effect 

of allowing the provisions of Administration of the Criminal Justice 

Act to override the express provision of the 1999 constitution. 

 In sample 19, all the attributes such as “unnecessarily 

gratuitous or outright usurpation” are of one carrier who is identified 



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as “Section 396(7) of the ACJA, 2015” which shows a negative 

relational process upon which the appeal is allowed. 

 

5. Conclusion 
Taking cognizance of the results of all the evidences by the 

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), respondents, 

and witnesses, we can infer that through the increased frequency of 

the verbal process usage by the court represented by the judge 

(Justice M.B Idris) at the federal high court, the stance of the court 

is represented as unbiased which resulted in sentencing Dr. Orji Uzo 

Kalu to 12yrs in Prison.. The simple statement through which the 

court has projected its opinion shows that it is not affected by 

external forces other than the dictates of the Constitution and other 

related judgements. 

On the other hand, the ideology of the judgement to the 

reader for Supreme Court judgement is significantly different. Here 

we see through the analysis, an extensive usage of the relational and 

behavioural processes by the Chief Judge as well as the prosecution 

and defence counsel at the federal high court. At the federal high 

court, we see the aggressive attitude of the prosecution counsel 

towards the respondents and specifically respondent 1 by attributing 

the carrier, Dr Orji Uzo kalu with negative features. Again, the 

commentary and judgement by the Supreme Court also use same 

behavioural and relational process in order to attain a benefit of 

doubt in favour of both respondents (Appellant and Dr Orji Uzo 

Kalu) by nullifying the judgement of the Federal High Court on 

technical grounds. 

However, the researcher concluded that the Federal High 

Court judgement is unprejudiced as it follows the specified rules 

given by the Constitution whereas the true ideology of the Supreme 

Court judgement appears to be prejudiced. But in all, the two 



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judgement was unaffected by all except that which applies to the 

Constitution. The above analysis has proved that Halliday’s 

Systemic Functional Linguistics is a veritable tool for uncovering 

the strategies that writers/speakers use to convince us of their 

viewpoints. The researcher also recommends for government to take 

proactive measures to address the abnormalities in the criminal 

justice system of Nigeria. This will also go a long way to contribute 

its own quota towards solving the problem of insecurity in Nigeria. 

The study recommends for more research in the critical area 

of judicial interpretation as well as the involvement of forensic 

linguistic experts in the court in particular and in the administration 

of the criminal justice system of Nigeria in general. 

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