Continued from Part 2
A half-truth is a whole lie (Jewish Proverb)
It is a cart if it travels well; else it is but timber (Hindu Proverb)
Don’t speak unless you can improve on the silence (Spanish Proverb)
A fool is like all other men as long as he remains silent (Danish Proverb)
A sheep that gave birth to a ram (male sheep) is as good as one without any off-spring (Aturu muru ebula gba aka nwa) (Igbo Proverb)
He who the gods have marked out for disappearance, will not rest until he disappears (onye ndi nmüö ji akpukpo üfü tue, ma odighi füe, ogaghi izu ike) (Igbo Proverb in Ngwa dialect)
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wo Nigerian politicians of queer character decided to wash their dirty linens in the public and we have no choice but to watch them tear each other apart. The whole episode looks like where two cocks are fighting for a hen and people will be watching them with enthusiasm. I hope that they will be exposing more of themselves. Nemesis is catching up with the fraudulent people that contributed to the failed nature of Nigeria. God Has started exposing the evil ones in our society; this is just the beginning. The other day, IBB decided to contradict himself when nobody forced him to, giving us flimsy excuses why he annulled the election won by Chief Abiola of the blessed memory. I am sure he must be regretting why he didn’t hold his uneasy peace for now.
The other day also, Orji Uzoh Kalu that loves getting himself into un-necessary controversy, for wont of trying to remain relevant in a society where only few have any regard for him, also contradicted and even shamed himself by asking about what went wrong with Nigeria, when he is one of the things that went wrong with Nigeria.
Now again, the devil has exposed his “anus” by his recent criticism of Atiku for making up with his erstwhile boss, Obasanjo. There is no problem in criticising a person, but, lying under the guise of criticism or blowing everything out of proportion just to whip up cheap sentiments or score cheap points, is repulsive. Atiku and Kalu are birds of the same feather, they know each other’s weak points and Atiku “removed the gloves” while attacking Kalu and the public is watching and enjoying it all.
It beats my imagination why Orji Uzoh Kalu takes pleasure in enmeshing himself in controversy from time to time and in that process, he comes out always with “bruised or bloodied nose”.
Kalu claimed in the report by the Nation Newspapers (in Part 1 of this article) that he will surprise Nigerians in 2011. In as much as I would love to see a person of Igbo extraction elected as the president in order to bring the fratricidal civil war fought about 40 years ago to an end (because, despite all that have been said, the civil war has not ended in so many people’s mind), Kalu will be the last person I would want to see in that position. Ndi Igbo have qualified and sane people other than people like the kalus, who can take up that post anytime, anyday.
That Ndi Igbo have been denied the presidency of the country for too long, makes it imperative that whenever they get the chance to occupy that office, only the best person from there will be good enough. Many Nigerians have reservations about Ndi Igbo and allowing a neophyte or a crook from Igbo stock to be the president of Nigeria will turn the whole ethnic group into a laughing stock because the other ethnic groups will then ask why Ndi Igbo have be clamouring for the opportunity to rule Nigeria when they can’t get their act together or bring out an intelligent and selfless ruler? Ndi Igbo have been telling Nigerians that a president from their stock (onye Igbo) will be all that Nigeria needs to make it to greater heights, so choosing a wimp will be anathematic to the Ndi Igbos´ claim and cause. Orji Uzo Kalu has nothing upstairs to rule Nigeria since he was unable to rule a state.
The former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu, made an interesting and honest remark at the meeting of the National Grassroots Forum (an arm of the Peoples Democratic Party) in Awka during the inauguration of the Anambra chapter of the group as reported by the Guardian Newspapers of Tuesday, March 3, 2009. There he blamed the Igbos for being the architects of their alleged marginalisation. Mantu noted that a larger percentage of the Federal Government’s contracts in the five South East states were awarded to persons from the area but they chose not to perform. Mantu said further that the zone held on to the Senate Presidency for eight years but failed to use the opportunity to the full advantage of their people. Asking "If a state like Lagos can give out contracts for their roads to a company like Julius Berger, what stops the Igbos from doing the same thing so that they will do a quality and durable job?"
Mantu´s assertion is correct and indisputable. Evan Enwerem achieved nothing for Ndi Igbo as a senate president other than to engross himself in one scandal after another. Chuba Okadigbo achieved nothing for Ndi Igbo as senate president other than getting too controversial. Chuba allowed his political enemies to ensnare him and plot his down fall. Pius Anyim achieved nothing for Ndi Igbo as senate president other than to get himself entangled in a battle for supremacy against his then state governor and to antagonise the then president, leading to his unceremonial exit. Adolphus Wabara was one of the worst senate presidents and he achieved nothing for Ndi Igbo other than getting himself into a mess because of a paltry N50 million (judging by the amount the (dis)honourable members are embezzling) and that led to his ignominious exit from that exalted position. Ken Nnamani achieved nothing for Ndi Igbo as a senate president other than playing safe and staying out of touch with the politics in Abuja, that when he was there, his impact was hardly felt. Ken Nnamani wanted to change things in Abuja but his effort was at its best half-measured and faint-hearted. He was a pariah in his own state of Enugu and couldn’t command much influence in Abuja.
All the Igbo senators between 1999 and 2007 stayed aloof from the interest of their constituency. Each of them only wanted to be senate president. That was why within a period of 8 years, Ndi Igbo produced 5 different senate presidents. And all the senate presidents had one thing in common: They were selfish; that was why the executive arm of the government at the federal level used and dumped them at will.
Kalu should know that he can’t be the president of Nigeria by making noise; the criteria for choosing, selecting, electing or appointing a Nigerian president will not be on who is the highest or loudest noise maker in the country. Kalu has nothing tangible to offer to Nigeria; he was found wanting as a state governor and can’t be entrusted with a bigger role as a president of a country. He was found wanting in a little thing and can’t do better in a bigger thing. Kalu as a pathological liar, engages in that shameful act only to boost his ego.
Instead of Kalu as the then governor of Abia State to use the resources of the state in building and maintaining the infrastructure in the state, he used same to build up his business empire. What the state lost, his business gained.
Writing about the life and antics of Orji Uzor Kalu can take days and volumes, but, let’s end it for now here with this long piece published by Southeast Express (written by Ikedieze Omerisinkwo & Ahamefula N’ Anya when Kalu was still the governor of Abia state).
“To say that Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State is controversial would be running the risk of being accused of making a gross understatement. The once young but now fast aging governor’s middle name is indeed “controversy” to those who had followed developments in both political and economic spheres of Nigeria since the ascension to power of this enigma in 1999, the question has always been ‘how did this guy manage to execute the coup that brought him to power’.
This is more striking in view of Kalu’s abysmal background and lack of well grounded education. For those who had coin the phrase “broken English” they must have had Kalu’s grammar in mind.
But today Kalu sit atop the government of Abia State, a state that had produced the high and mighty. The irony and laugh is that with all the educational accomplishments the indigenes of the state are noted for, an almost illiterate now pilots its affairs.
That Governor Uzor Kalu’s name is controversy is not speaking figuratively. His surname Kalu does not belong to the man who passes as his father, Johnson Uzor Nsiegbe who hails from Umuisi Igbere autonomous community in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State had all but denied Kalu.
Even in his mothers womb controversies had trailed him. The rumour was that his assumed father, Johnson Uzor Nsiegbe has doubted his paternity and for that reason had broken with tradition and customs of Bende (Kalu’s area) and refused to name Kalu after his own father and had passed over Kalu to name his younger brother Nnanna after his father Nsiegbe. That is the reason Kalu’s younger brother is called “NNANNA” meaning grand father or father’s father a name that is traditionally reserved for the first born but denied Kalu.
Few years after the birth of Kalu his mother Nmecha Uzor later to be known as Eunice, a name she took to disguise her identity in her chosen profession of the easy life and for ease of pronunciation and to give herself a modern personage, packed out of Johnson Uzor’s house and headed to Port Harcourt where rumour had it she lived in a brothel and later moved to Obigbo (Oyigbo) in Rivers State where she sold gin, kola nut and attended to servicemen after the close of business. That was until one Madubike Ukonu; from Amankalu Igbere in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State, then her lover resettled her in School Road and later Danfodio Road, Aba.
Southeast Express reliably gathered that while all these were going on, the young Kalu suffered emotionally and his educational progress was stunt. Kalu left in the care of aunts and close relations, drop in and out of school intermittently and combined his education with selling Chinese magazine to supplement and boast his ego. It was during this period that Kalu picked some of his survivalist traits, which served him well later in life.
Once the young Kalu could determine for himself, he changed his surname from Uzor Nsiegbe to Kalu some say to spite Johnson Uzor for abandonment and lack of care. But a close family relation of Kalu who spoke on condition of anonymity said it was his mother Eunice Nmecha who encouraged him to do so confiding in him on his real identity and paternity.
Southeast Express investigation reveals that Kalu may have change his name to disguise his identity after escaping and jumping bail in London after a brush with British narcotic agents when he was arrested importing hard drugs into London. For standing surety and securing his bail set at forty thousand British Pounds Sterling, the duo of Alex and Robert Mbakwe sons of the late Chief Sam Mbakwe, former governor of old Imo State had tales of woes to tell as their father’s London property was forfeited to the British Government when they could not redeemed the bail or produce the fleeing Kalu.
This much was corroborated by Chief Enyinnaya Abaribe, Kalu’s erstwhile deputy and challenger in the gubernatorial election of 2003 in his election petition.
But David Okoroji, childhood friend of Kalu told Southeast Express that Kalu’s change of his surname name is traceable to his penchant for name-dropping. Kalu’s drive and ambition to get to the top was in Kalu’s distorted world view hindered by his battered family background and to ameliorate this, said Okoroji, Kalu changed his name and claimed he is the illegitimate son of Chief Nnanna Kalu (now late), the Abiriba businessman, industrialist, politician and an NPN man of timber and caliber.
This quickly drew the ire and consternation of many and draws Kalu on a warpath with Chief Onwuka Kalu, and the Okpuzu of Abiriba who denied Kalu’s assertion and denounced him as an impostor. This triggered a media war of the two Kalus.
That Orji Uzor Kalu is gifted with the art of name-dropping is no longer in doubt. On his way to fame and political limelight in 1992 election to the Federal House of Representatives, Kalu’s only headache in picking the National Republican Congress (NRC) ticket was Barrister S.N. Onyeama (now HRH), the former Speaker of the old Imo State House of Assembly. Then it was perceived that General Jerry Useni was calling the shots and running the behind the show arrangement which Nigerian politics is known for. Kalu invited Onyeama and told him “my brother don’t you know Useni sleeps with my mother, what magic would you perform to beat Useni’s concubine’s son”. Of course Onyeama was frightened and they settled and Kalu gave him a cheque of N15, 000.00 to cover expenses already made and guess what, the cheque bounced.
Kalu dropped names of heavy weights like Babangida, Shonekan, Obasanjo, Abacha etc. it was this that got him into trouble with Major Hamza Al Mustafa in 1992. Kalu was passing himself off as Abacha’s agent and was purporting and collecting money thereto. Mustafa had him arrested and hold him up at the DMI headquarters, feeding the fattest Kwarikwatas on Kalu’s blood.
When eventually Barrister Mike Okoye was contacted to effect the release of Kalu, Kalu’s mother convinced him to invest N2 million into the project to release Kalu to enable him attend the swearing in of House members almost coming up.
Okoye was to learn the lessons of all those who had come into contact with the Uzor Kalus. When he went to Kalu’s mother to collect his N2 million and even before he sat down, Eunice Nmecha confronted him “I hope you did not come to ask me for any money because there is none, you have already repaid yourself. You think I don’t know what has been going on and how you have been sleeping with Orji’s wife. Look at the first daughter is it not your carbon copy. If we do the calculations well you will see that it is you that will balance me some money”. And there went N2 million.
Also, Kalu’s homosexual tendencies are one of the open secrets in Umuahia. A source that claimed to be a long time friend of Kalu but now one of his bitterest critics told Southeast Express of an experience he had in Kalu’s house in Lagos in 1992. Said this source, he and Kalu were in Kalu’s house in Lagos in the company of another man friend of Kalu’s who is now holding an important post in Kalu’s government which may be mistaken for the post of the deputy governor. After a while the other of Kalu’s friend went upstairs to Kalu’s bedroom, shortly after Kalu went up too. Our source remains in the sitting room. Thereafter a call came in and the caller said he was a general and requested to speak to Kalu and going upstairs to look for Kalu our source barge in on Kalu and his friend on the bed making love. Our source said he was so horrified that he forgot the call and Kalu warned him sternly and advised him that ‘it is not everything a person sees that he relates to others’. For this and Kalu’s incessant passes on him, he parted ways with the governor.
Having conquered Abia State through intimidation, threats, lies, murders, violence and the likes, Kalu went on to establish and strengthen his stranglehold on the state. With the active tutorship and leadership provided by his mother; he resorted to the use and employment of oath swearing at diabolical shrines and continually cowed his opponent and the nation through carefully woven propaganda and stun all by his harlotry like approach to politics.
With mission accomplished, Kalu had unfettered access to the resources of the Abia state, which he and his mother partitioned amongst themselves. Their control was so total and they took it to a level unimaginable before the coming into power of Kalu and practice humiliation as an art and strategy of governance. Political heavy weights in the state were made to defer to Kalu’s mother as a form of homage and obeisance. Nobody who wants favours from the Kalu’s government or political machinery dare stood up to speak to his mother but must do so kneeling.
To boast the image and awesomeness of the mother, Kalu transferred all major decision-making and appointment to her, which earned her the sobriquet “Mother Excellency”
Kalu’s mother’s control and hold on the government and politics of Abia State was such that she brook no opposition to the extend that the state was not large enough even to contain her and her daughter-in- law and Abia first lady had to go on AWOL to make way in order to replace first lady with first mother.
By appointing illiterates and misfits into key sensitive positions, Kalu made sure that there would be no resistance to and ensures blind obedience to his will and command. So pervasive was this master strategy from the master strategist himself that Kalu had no qualms in appointing an illiterate as a commissioner of education in 1999 and from there moved him to Agriculture and local government and chieftaincy affairs.
For this act alone the first Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Nkem Ike lost his position when he could not convince his peers to endorse mother Excellency’s illiterate candidate and could not convince her either to drop her candidate. As a parting gift, Hon. Ike received three dirty slaps on the face from Kalu’s mother and an order to the House to replace him. This order was carried out within three days and Ike’s successor learnt well from the fate of his predecessor that the House wasted no time in approval Mama’s candidate.
Governor Kalu’s notoriety for appointing misfits into sensitive positions of government is well documented. Kalu had appointed Okada rider, women gin and kola nut sellers etc as transitional chairmen, when confronted with this anomalies, Kalu retorted that if he Kalu could be governor anybody can be anything in the state. Kalu admittedly referring to his own chequered background!
With this scenario at play in the state, Kalu’s pillage of the treasury knew no bounds. His main goldmines were: 1. Road construction/ reconstruction. 2. Local government council’s allocations. 3. The state primary education board (SPEB) and Enyimba football club.
Orji Uzor Kalu on coming to power had anchored the thrust of his administration on the provisions of infrastructure mainly roads. For these he had touted himself as and widely held by supporters as “Action governor”. But that soon dissipated as it became obvious that his road were nothing other than a conduit pipe to siphon funds meant to be used to better the lots of the masses. Orji Kalu’s roads were heavily over invoiced and badly constructed and had a life span of average of 3 months. These roads have now become glaring evidence of mal-administration, looting, impassable and an albatross on the neck of Kalu and subject of ridicule. The contracts for the roads were also neither bided for nor awarded in line with set guidelines. Most of them were awarded to companies, which Kalu has interest, or to his cronies who would bring back returns.
Some of the roads were also awarded to his mother, Eunice Nmecha. Roads like Ehere Road, Ogbor-Hill which is now threatening residents of the area with deluge.
Judging by the way Kalu’s propaganda goes it appears his only take on governance and provisions of dividends of democracy are building sub-standard roads. Though Kalu claimed to have reintroduced free education in both primary and secondary school system but the facts on ground points to the contrary! While his radio, the BCA sings his praises in this regard, parents withdraw their wards in record numbers from government schools in preference to privately owned schools. The question has remained why parents would abandon government free education in preference to heavy tuition driven private schools. The truth is that government schools in Abia State has suffered untold neglect by the Uzor Kalu’s administration who had even appointed an illiterate as its commissioner for education and as such has become a breeding ground for cultist and a source of thugs and killer squad for Kalu and mother.
A source within the state ministry of education told Southeast Express that the present situation well suits Kalu and his mother whose emphasis on education is very low. “Its like mother Excellency is on a revenge mission of, if my kids didn’t have good education, neither would yours” asserts this source.
Kalu and mother Excellency’s disdain for education, Southeast Express learnt is so much that three months ago they perfected plans to turn primary and secondary schools into market and started the first phase of their plan by building and surrounding major schools in Aba and some other towns with stores. It only took intense public outcry for them to roll back their evil scheme.
This source further opined that the present situation benefits Kalu more. Fewer pupils in schools translate into less teachers to pay and that’s means more cash from the UBE scheme for Kalu. Again, more private schools mean more revenue for Kalu from his ever increasing levies and operating permits for these schools. “So head or tail, Kalu wins,” said this source.
So while the UBE scheme is releasing more funds to Kalu’s government, he actually spend far less on education and has converted the state primary education board (SPEB) an “A” board into a family venture as only his cousins are qualified and has headed this board since the inception of his administration.
Perhaps, no other sector has Governor Kalu hit gold than the local government council’s allocations, with the end of the tenure of elected council executives and the introduction of transitional arrangement giving the governor complete control of the administration, appointment and unrestricted access to the funds of the 17 local government councils in the state. Like the thief that Orji Uzor Kalu is, he pounced and appointed morons, misfits and illiterates to man these councils. This period also witness the introduction of Okija Politics in the state.
Chijioke Okoro had given a graphic detail in his petition to the Inspector-General of Police of the happenings within this period in the politics of Abia State. From Okoro’s petition, the only qualification an appointee must possess is the ability and willingness to abandon self and swear oath of allegiance to Kalu and his mother at the dreaded shrine at Ogwugwu Akpu Okija.
In the words of Comrade Orji Akaji, then chairman, National Union of Local Government Employee (NULGE), Abia State chapter “A critical analysis of this era is highly regrettable in the life of local government in Abia State. It was from April 2002 when the state joint local government account kicked off that we could say local government died.
Continuing Akaji said that the period led to the climax of the total annihilation and assault on the local government system. During this period also the state government hijacked the allocation of the local governments via illegal deductions. From April 2002 to date there has been a total deprivation of funds by the state government and everything came to a halt. Staff salaries were no more paid regularly and councils run into arrears ranging from 2 to 10 months”
Our investigation and document from the office of the accountant-general of Abia State showed that the Abia State government had carried out this illegal deduction of LGA funds through a dubious scam reminiscent of the notorious advance fee fraud popularly called 419 in that it ingeniously devised four nomenclatures/ headings in which siphoning of the funds could be effected: Deduct 1.5 percent joint account, deduct share of mandate, deduct project account and deduct irrevocable mandate on security of the state. Under these headings Governor Kalu had from April 2002 to date siphoned a whooping sum of Ten billion eight hundred and fifty three million , five hundred and seventy two thousand, two hundred and twenty two Naira, eight Kobo (N10, 853,572,222. 8K).
To demonstrate further Kalu’s lack of understanding of what governance is about and the real meaning of establishing schemes. Governor Kalu went to town ably supported by his propaganda outfit, the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA) shouting himself hoarse and announcing the establishment of what he called Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu’s free medical scheme.
Southeast Express investigation reveals that the totality of the Orji Uzor Kalu’s free medical scheme comes down to a couple of mobile vans with the said inscription and some aspirin, paracetamol, vitamin C, E and such first aid drugs. While filtering through the scheme millions Naira, scarce resources for the betterment of the masses.
That Orji Uzor Kalu knew his place in history could not be any where else other than the dust bin, he is busy naming institutions after himself and honour, and said Dr. Cosmos Okpo, such honour belongs to subsequent administrations to bestow. A good example is the so called “Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu Teaching Hospital” which has also become a land grabbing venture as he is busy divesting the Osisiomas of their land. The same is equally true in Alayi and Igbere both in Bende local Government Area of the State, on the pretence of building a State University of Science and Technology. A similar lie was use by Kalu to acquire large chunk of land from the Ugwueke community also in Bende Local Government Area. It appears there is no limit to Kalu’s rapine.
While sports and football lovers in the state are shouting and cheering their darling Enyimba Football Club to victory, Governor Kalu is smiling and laughing to his bank both locally and abroad. Enyimba FC has ingeniously been transformed into another conduit pipe to fritter away Abia State resources.
Kalu tells everybody who cares to listen how many billions he has pump into the football club without revealing how much the club makes. Southeast Express can authoritatively say that indeed Kalu had spent a fortune in Enyimba but it has been spent into his own private bank account and all the foreign exchange generated by the club in prize money and players transfer fees had ended up in Kalu’s foreign bank accounts with the active connivance of the management of the club who are his appointees.
What Kalu fail to grab in the club his able mother collects! The re-grassing of the Enyimba stadium pitch was awarded to Mama Okija Ndigbo (MON) and off course, mother Excellency pocket the contract sum paid in full and left the job undone. The pitch has now come under CAF sanction and nobody dare mention mama’s name or say anything, “Usu enweghi onu”.
But the fortune of the club seemed tied to Kalu’s which have nose dived since the Okija revelations. A fan of Enyimba FC who claimed to know a lot about the behind the scene activities of the club told our reporter “since Okija Enyimba has not won a single home match, is it that the governor no longer know where to buy life ram or are there no body to bury them at night in the stadium”
Governor Orji Uzor Kalu has succeeded in fusing the three arms of government in the state into one and imbued himself with dictatorial and over riding powers. With the compromised position the Chief Judge of Abia State is in, who has a resolution of the Abia State House of Assembly directing the governor to dismissed him hanging over his head, the Chief Judge has only the governor to thank for remaining in office and for the governor to continue to ignore and thwart the resolution of the House, the Chief Judge must remain humble and subservient.
To tame the Abia House of Assembly require less effort on the part of the governor. The membership of the House is already on oath at Okija, for Kalu, withholding funds from them did the trick. Abia House is almost non-functioning with no form of committee activities going on and members go out on contract hunt for survival as no fund is provided and the Speaker is too timid and tied to the apron string of the governor’s mother to take any action. To make sure that the members of the House rely on him for survival and to worsen their financial standing, Kalu taxes them N78, 000.00 each every month deducted from their salaries on the pretence that the members are paying for their official vehicle. The purchases of the vehicles were as usual heavily over invoiced. Once again, Kalu wins head or tail.
Having conquered the Abia State and converted her resources and treasury into his and mother’s, Kalu embarked on laundering same. He invested and bought ships in full public glare and with no mouth wagging. Even before this euphoria died down, Kalu announced that he was veering into airline business and behold he bought fleets of plane and Slokair was born while the SUN NEWSPAPERS was already shining and spewing propaganda for Kalu. Analysts had opined that the Slok airline project is meant to serve as a converter of Kalu’s loot into legitimate money, a money-laundering outfit.
In less then four years from coming to power Kalu became the biggest “land owner” in Abia State purchasing and taking over choice properties and where owners are reluctant to sell, Kalu resort to arm twisting tactics and like King Ahab’s Jezebel, Mama Okija Ndigbo was ever near to coax the would be obstinate owner. A case in point is the hotel in Umuahia belonging to late Chief Doris who fought to retain his property, until as is alleged, agents of Kalu pursued him to his sick bed in the hospital and poisoned him to death. Following the death of Chief Doris, work is now going on at a fast pace in the hotel located at Uzuakoli road, Umuahia.
To start naming properties acquired or taken over by Kalu in the last five years, southeast Express learnt would involve retaining a consultant to do the compilation.
The haste in which Kalu is diverting his loots abroad and into legitimate business, Southeast Express investigation reveals is not unconnected with the Obasanjo’s resolve to checkmate the amiable but deadly governor. This came on the heels of damning international security reports that linked Governor Kalu with money laundering activities and similar crimes. This culminated in the near authenticated rumour early July that Kalu was arrested overseas on such charges. It became a challenge on the Federal government whose efforts to clean the image of the country abroad have not been yielding the much desired result and Nigeria still rank among the most corrupt nations on earth.
Also, Kalu’s erstwhile friend and the present acting chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP in Abia State, Chief Alfred Awa (Alfredo) had written petitions detailing four foreign bank accounts operated by Kalu holding a total of $26 Million American dollars and giving further insight into the modus operandi of the Kalu’s money laundering scheme.
Kalu’s discomfort in this regard had been further accentuated by a petition written to the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) by Prince Ukaegbu, the All Progressives Grand Alliance Candidate and the widely acclaimed winner of the April 12th National Assembly election of Aba Federal Constituency of which Kalu appropriated for his younger brother through unheard-of-before forgeries. Ukaegbu had set in detail Kalu’s criminal pillage of the 17 local government councils’ allocations backing them up with documents from Kalu’s accountant-general’ s office.
Kalu in his usual manner had shouted wolf and ran to the Federal High Court to stop the EFCC from investigating the accounts of the councils in Abia State alleging witch hunting by the federal government targeted at maligning him.
But Nuhu Ribadu, assistant inspector-general of police and chairman, Economic and Financial Crime Commission, considers Ukaegbu’s petition as a test case of and will determine how the Commission will move forward with its resolve to wage a frontal attack against corruption and the mismanagement of public funds in Nigeria.
Having gauged his successes in taking over the real estate business in Abia State, Kalu had moved abroad to repeat his master strategy and to America he went on a buying spree. Documents at the disposal of Southeast Express shows the arrival of this nouveau riche on the real estate sector of the American economy!
Kalu’s take over of No. 14900 River Road, Potomac, Merry land, 20854-06030, USA was spectacular, he had told agents that he wanted only a property that is fit for a king and nothing less would do where he would retire at the end of his looting extravaganza. To work went his agents who combed and traverse the entire real estate sector in Maryland and came up with this property to the admiration of Kalu who wasted no time in doling out the mind-boggling price tag.
Southeast Express investigation shows that No. 14900 River Road, Potomac rank among the choicest properties and could be describe as an emperor’s delight. Officially the property is described as “LUXURY PLUS” and is complete with a swimming pool and an asphalt tennis court besides other state of the art gadgets.
From documents available to Southeast Express, the following information could be gleaned:
Date of purchase 26th June 2003,
Total Price tag: $1,700,000.00/N238,000, 000.00
Total Tax value: $36,306.00/N5,082,840.00
Legal fees/agency/processing: $168.000.00/N23,520,000
Renovation/Improvement: $683,000,00. / N95,620,000.00
Did Governor Orji Uzor Kalu of Abia State breach any law in his acquisition of properties abroad? Ukpai Ukairo, long time adversary of Kalu, gubernatorial candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP) in the 2003 election, human rights activist and lead counsel to Prince Ukaegbu at the National Assembly Election Tribunal thinks so. Ukairo told Southeast Express that the present unfolding saga is yet another test to the anti-corruption and transparency posture of the Obasanjo’s administration and “how the president react will show the real intent and resolve to wipe out corruption. While the president is singing and dancing his anti-corruption Fuji song, his very lieutenants are busy appropriating to themselves the so called dividends of democracy at the expense of the suffering masses of this country” Ukairo asserted.
Ukairo further opined that Governor Kalu had not just diverted the resources of Abia State to private use but has equally breach the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria via the Code of Conduct for public officers, which he Kalu swore to uphold.
Ukairo said he will commence and lead the impeachment moves against the governor for breach of the Constitution, which his actions amounted to. “Okija or no Okija, the Abia House must rise to and discharge the duty imposes on them by their office. We will see which of their oaths will override the other, whether the oath of allegiance to uphold the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria or the one sworn to at Ogwugwu Akpu Okija will supersedes ” Ukairo concluded.
Chief Kalu Uwadiegwu, leader of Ohaneze Abia said the evidence placed before him astounds him. “You mean while Governor Kalu is extolling the virtues of transparency and portrays himself as an anti corruption crusader, he is busy committing the very crimes he is criticizing others. This governor is a thief” Uwadiegwu thundered.
Chief Uwadiegwu said Ohaneze Abia would meet to fashion out an appropriate response to Kalu’s unending infamy.
But to say that Kalu has not bequeathed at all any democracy dividends to Abians would amount to being economical with the truth. Kalu has to his credit such schemes as:
- Orji Uzor Kalu’s assisted mass transit tokumbo cars, and (over invoiced) commercial buses.
- Orji Uzor Kalu’s assisted Inaga/Okada scheme
- Orji Uzor Kalu’s assisted wheel barrow scheme and most especially;
- Orji Uzor Kalu’s assisted Poverty enthronement Programme
He and his mother have done very much to raise the poverty level of the indigenes and corporate entity of Abia State”. End
Ladies and gentlemen: That has been Orji Uzor Kalu for you.
THE THANKS IS ALL YOURS!!!
