Ahead of Saturday’s House of Representatives by-election, the chief whip of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Orji Uzor-Kalu, has replied Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and the minority leader of the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe over comments about his incarceration.
Kalu had last weekend lambasted the Abia state government for laying claims to World Bank NEMAP projects, Niger Delta Development Commission (NNDC) and Federal government-sponsored projects in Abia as state government-funded projects.
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Ikpeazu who was reacting to Kalu’s statement that funds he is using to reconstruct many roads in the state came from Federal Government, urged people to ignore the former governor as he was in prison when the roads were flagged off.
The political gladiators in Abia State have been at each other’s throats since the start of campaign for March 27 by-election in Aba North and Aba South Federal Constituency.
Ikpeazu and the Senator representing Abia South Senatorial zone, Enyinnaya Abaribe went ahead to allege that Kalu was yet to recover from Kuje prison experience, and may find it difficult to understand the new changes in Abia.
Ikpeazu and Abaribe in their reactions consecutively stressed that Kalu’s suggestion that road projects in Aba are funded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and federal government is a clear pointer that something is wrong with him.
Making mockery of Senator Kalu, Ikpeazu said, “I heard that some people are saying that the roads we did in Aba were paid for by the Federal Government through them.
“Please don’t be angry at such people, they were in prison when we flagged off those roads and they are not used to seeing such roads in Aba.
“By the time they came out of prison and saw those beautiful roads, they didn’t believe that such roads could be done in Aba and fully paid for by our government. Please forgive them.
“It is either he is yet to fully recover from the effects of his several months of incarceration at the Kuje prisons or he is just plain ignorant.” Governor Ikpeazu said.
Responding to Governor Ikpeazu’s mockery, Kalu said he is thankful to God to have been imprisoned for six months, revealing that God allowed the conspiracy of his enemies because it is part of his life script.
He said that Abaribe was little minded to think he was ashamed of his prison experience, adding that Abaribe who he picked from the gutters and made him Deputy Governor was busy supplying petitions to his conspirators because they thought he would be President in 2023.
“My conspirators thought I would be President in 2023, so they decided to cut my journey short at all cost. Abaribe continued to supply petitions. But you see, these people are not God.
“They think I am ashamed to have gone to prison. I am not and I don’t blame them because they don’t know my relationship with God.
“They are little minds and wicked people who have refused to do any project for their own people. They have kept a centre table for you and called it bridge.
“You can’t even pay common salaries and you are here swearing true to God, ‘na me build this road’. The only road the state is constructing is the 600 meters road in Eziukwu which they have been building since last six years; that’s one year 100 meters.
“Compare my village and these people’s village and you will see how shameless they are. If you can’t build your own village, is it my own you will build?
Kalu who was speaking to crowd in Aba went on to ask if Abaribe and Ikpeazu could come out in Aba by night without fear.
“This is 10 PM and I am here with you, can the Governor or Abaribe come here? That is why in leadership you have to be with the people you are leading. But they don’t understand this simple technique, all the projects they claim to be doing are all on radio, nothing on ground.
“Joseph went to Prison, even Obasanjo went to prison. My going to prison is part of my life script and I am thankful God allowed it. Let it be on record that the federal government of Nigeria is responsible for the N27 billion Ngwa road and not the state government.
“A government that is owing over 23 months to Abia Polytechnic, 22 months to Abia Teaching hospital, 18 months to Health Management Board, 27 months to Technical School Arochukwu, amounting over N29 billion as arrears of salaries excluding pension cannot embark on a N27 billion road job.
“You cannot give what you don’t have. The Senator representing you in the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe has been in the Senate for 16 years and has done no single project in Abia South. He is busy speaking English as if English is what you need.
“You need infrastructure, you need good roads, you need schools and hospitals. Go to Abia North, just a year in the Senate, I have given them 19 roads, renovated schools, built hospitals with a lot of empowerment. Abaribe is so shameless that he doesn’t even have a road leading to his village in Umuekwensu.”
Meanwhile, the managing Director of Eckleen integrated Services the contractor that handled the Osusu Road Project in Aba ( the road getting controversy) , Engr. Uzoma Onuoha has threatened to sue the former Governor of the State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu for claiming that the road was done by the Niger Delta Development Commission NDDC.
Onuoha who spoke to newsmen in Aba while reacting to the claims by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu described the claims as the mother of all lies.
He wondered how someone could wake up overnight to claim a job done by the state government under Governor Okezie Ikpeazu.
While displaying documents issued his company by the Abia State Government for the job, he disclosed that the contractor which was awarded in 2018, was duly supervised by the state Ministry of Works.
According to him, no official of the NDDC at any point in time, visited, monitored or supervised the project and expressed deep shock and annoyance that the former Governor is now laying that the road was done by the NDDC.
Onuoha described Senator Kalu’s claim as fallacious, misleading and political propaganda aimed at scoring cheap popularity.
He made it clear that he is not a registered contractor with NDDC and has never handled any Project for the Commission, stressing that he is a business Man working for the Abia State Government.
“This claim is fallacious, misleading and a lie from the pit of hell,” Uzoma Onuoha said.
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