SAHARANEWS – After a 12-year trial, Orji Uzor Kalu, a former Governor of Abia State, and a serving senator of the All Progressives Congress, APC, representing Abia North Senatorial district and Senate’s Chief Whip was on Thursday, December 5, sentenced to 12 years in prison after he was convicted by the Federal High Court in Lagos over N7.1bn fraud.
Orji Uzor Kalu has been facing trial for over a decade after he was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for allegedly carting away billions of naira while he served as Abia State governor.
Speaking to AljazirahNigeria at the Kuje Prison, he was embittered that despite his support for President Muhamadu Buhari and the APC, that some enemies within the party ‘rubbished’ all his efforts. He specifically mentioned the leader of the APC, Ahmed Bola Tinubu as using the EFCC to fight him because he is afraid that he will contest against him for the presidency in 2023.
He said it was obvious that he was the “eye of the South East” and that was why Tinubu does not want him contesting against him especially as, “the South-east is yet to produce either the President or Vice President since 1999, while Tinubu’s South-west has produced the President for eight years and Vice President for another eight years running, so he knows with a formidable candidate from the South-east, he cannot succeeded President Buhari come 2023.