Chief Whip of the Senate and former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has taken the Senator representing Abia South Senatorial zone, Enyinnaya Abaribe, to the cleaners.
Abaribe was Kalu’s deputy during his first term as Abia governor. The deputy governor was later impeached.
Kalu, on Monday, also said he was thankful to God to have been imprisoned for six months, declaring that God allowed the conspiracy of his enemies because “it is part of my life script”.
The billionaire businessman and politician
made the revelations in Aba North Ward 1 during his ward to ward campaign for All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Chief Mascot Uzor Kalu, for the Aba North/South Federal Constituency bye-election scheduled to hold on Saturday.
The former Governor was responding to statements from Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, and Abaribe accusing him of not recovery from Kuje Prison experience.
Ikpeazu and Abaribe, in their reactions, had stated that Kalu’s suggestion that road projects in Aba are funded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the Federal Government “is a clear pointer that something is wrong with him”.
“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.” the governor’s statement read.
In his counter-reaction, Kalu told a mammoth crowd in Aba that Abaribe was little minded to think he was ashamed of his prison experience.
” 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 the radio, nothing on the 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”.
Kalu had last weekend lambasted the state government for laying claims to World Bank NEMAP projects, NNDC, and Federal Government-sponsored projects in Abia as state government-funded projects.
Speaking to a crowd in Igwebuike Hall in Aba South, Kalu had said: “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 to over N29 billion as arrears of salaries excluding pension cannot embark on an 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 the English language 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. It is a big shame”.