Orji Uzor-Kalu: I picked Abaribe from the gutter

Senator Orji Uzor-Kalu has alleged that he picked Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe from the gutter.

Both Uzor-Kalu and Abaribe are members of the 9th Senate. While Kalu represents Abia North, Abaribe is the representative of Abia South.

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Abaribe was the deputy governor when Kalu governed Abia in 1999 but he was impeached before the end of Kalu’s first term.

In his book entitled, “Made in Aba”, Abaribe had said he was removed because he did not bow to Kalu’s mother who was very powerful in the government.

Abaribe said he started having trouble with Orji Kalu when he failed to join the league of “Egusi” peelers that thronged his mother’s abode “for whatever reason”.

He said: “I lasted exactly three years and nine months in office, before I threw in the towel. The bumpy ride ended on 7th March, 2003, when I finally resigned and switched parties.

“The one tenure was characterised by three attempts at impeachment. The one thread that runs through them all is that government can make no error.”

However, both men renewed their hostilities in the buildup to Saturday’s bye-election in Aba North and Aba South Federal Constituency.

Kalu has been campaigning for his younger brother who is the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate in the election.

Last week, Abaribe had attacked Kalu, saying he is yet to recover from Kuje prison experience, and may find it difficult to understand the new changes in Abia.

But in his own response, Kalu said Abaribe was little-minded to think he is ashamed of his prison experience, adding that it is strange that the senator he “picked from the gutters” and made Deputy Governor  supplied petitions to his conspirators.

“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… 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.

“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 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 in the 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 jailed for fraud in 2020, spoke at a campaign rally in Aba on Monday night.

The supreme court had overturned his conviction six months after.