Chief Edwin Clark, the South-South leader, has characterized Senate Chief Whip Senator Orji Uzor Kalu as a dishonest guy who is out to betray his South East people for selfish reasons.
The former Federal Commissioner for Information chastised the former Governor of Abia State for pledging support for a presidential aspirant from the country’s North East region and claiming that the North East is the closest to the South East for states that have not produced a President of Nigeria.
Senator Kalu was wanting to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 on the condition that his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), zone the presidential ticket to the South East.
However, he withdrew, and it was claimed that he backed Senate President, Senator Ahmad Lawan of the North East. On Monday, though, he refuted the story that backed Lawan’s presidential bid.
Clark, the Leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders’ Forum (SMBLF), said in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja that Senator Kalu’s ambition should be made of sterner stuff if Nigeria is to survive as a united country with equal citizenship.
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, according to the statement, is a betrayal of his ethnicity. Clark explored his ties to Senator Kalu, criminal accusations leveled against him, imprisonment, his transition from prison to the Senate, and how he abandoned and duped members of a movement he created to support the South East’s agenda.
The statement reads: “Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, one of the oldest vocal frontline politicians in South East, who had earlier given the impression that he will die for the Igbo course despite his behavioural attitude, but I doubted his insincerity and transparency. I first heard of Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, many years ago, when he was an active student of University of Maiduguri, in the North East. I met him in person for the first time in Amassoma, the hometown of the late first civilian Governor of Bayelsa State, Chief DSP Alamieyeseigha, when Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, as Governor of Abia State visited him.
“He drove round the known river in a luxurious riverboat on the sea side. We had pleasant discussions. I found in him a patriotic, courageous Nigerian who singularly attacked President Obasanjo on his corrupt practices, and stood by his charges when President Obasanjo threatened him with EFCC. Since then, we became very good friends, and he used to visit me in my house in Abuja.
“Sometimes, honouring me interviews as proprietor of Sun Newspapers. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu was convicted by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on Thursday 5, December 2019 and sentenced to 12 years in prison for #7.65 billion fraud. He was convicted for defrauding the Government of Abia State where he was a Governor for 8 years using his company SLOK Nigeria Limited. On Friday, 8 may 2020, the Supreme Court of Nigeria ruled that his trial was wrongly conducted and released him from prison while ordering a retrial of the case out of Court.
“Today, the criminal charges of corruption for which EFCC charged him in Lagos High Court are still hanging on his head, even though he got a temporary discharge by the Supreme Court judgment on his co-accused. Even though Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, was not a party to that Supreme Court judgment, the discharge of his co-accused also affected him. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, shamelessly ran back to the Senate after spending about six months in prison to assume a position as the Chief Whip of the distinguished Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, because we are in the country where anything can happen.
“Recently, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, publicly announced to Nigerians that he will drop his Presidential ambition if the Presidential seat was not zone to the South East. He even went to the extent of floating an organization known as Njiko Igbo Movement, whose purpose is to help secure the Presidential seat for a Nigerian citizen of Igbo extraction, Because an Igbo has only held the position of a Head of State for 6 months since Nigeria’s Independence. The Movement has branches and support groups throughout the Diaspora. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, launched the organization together with former Nigerian Senator, Emmanuel Onwe, a human rights advocate and lawyer, earlier based in the United Kingdom.
“Unexpectedly, the same Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, did not only drop his ambition to contest the Presidential election, but also declaring his support for the Presidential ambition Distinguished Senator, Ahmad Lawan, from Yobe State in North East on puerile and misinformed reasons that only South-East and North-East has not produced civilian Head of State in Nigeria.”
Clark also referenced Senator Kalu in the Sun Newspapers on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, as saying that “In the absence of a South Easterner being president of Nigeria in 2023, I have my full support for a North Easterner. This is because it would be the closest to the equity, fairness and Justice everyone is talking about. It further means that justice is on its way to the South East.”
Clark berated Kalu, saying that “This most dishonest and shameless statement from a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shows clearly that this is another Igbo man, who is out to betray his people simply for selfish reasons. Both the APC and the PDP have not officially decided against zoning of the Presidency to Southern Nigeria. Why is Senator Kalu jumping the gun, if he has no ulterior motive.”
According to Clark, there are many Igbos from the South East running for president, particularly in the APC, who are ready and willing to support Kalu, but he is not one of them because he is “insincere and dishonest.”
He questioned why Kalu would choose a presidential candidate from the North-East over his fellow Igbo compatriots from the South-East.
He stated that; “It is a blatant lie and fraudulent for Senator Kalu to say that the North-East is the nearest to the South-East for States that have not produced the Head of State or the President of Nigeria. As a Senator, I expected him to know that Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, who was the Prime Minister of Nigeria between 1957 and 1966, was from Bauchi State in the North East.”
He urged southeast authorities to punish anyone who tries to betray the region, or else they will jeopardize the zone’s cause at home. “Both the Northern and Southern Delegates rejected him.”
He stated that in 2018, the PDP allowed only the North to run for President in compliance with the party’s constitution.
He recalled that the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, chaired by him, campaigned for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar at their own expense during the election time, while Atiku was in Dubai.
According to Clark, “It is very shameful, fraudulent and disgraceful for eminent personalities like; former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Aminu Tambuwal, Governor of Sokoto State, for arrogantly breaching the Constitution of PDP, posing as if they are indispensable,” he said.
“Please, let your ambition be made of sterner stuff for Nigeria to survive as a united country, and as equal citizenship,“ Clark appealed.
Source: IgboDefence
