Don’t blame me for your woes, Orji tells Kalu

 

Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji, has told his predecessor, Uzor Kalu, to stop blaming him for his (Kalu’s) political woes.

Orji, who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Charles Ajunwa, denied an allegation by Kalu that he (Orji) had handpicked all the Peoples Democratic Party candidates for various elective positions ahead of the 2015 elections.

Kalu had in a letter he addressed to the National Chairman of PDP, Adamau Mu’azu, accused Orji of imposing his preferred candidates on the party ahead of the 2015 elections, and announced his withdrawal from the Abia-North senatorial district citing bias on the part of the governor.

The governor said, “Kalu knows very well that even if he contests an election today, he cannot win in the state again because he is a liability. He should stop deceiving himself as being a member of PDP which he is not.”

Orji also described as false the allegation by Kalu that “he played tricks on some prominent Abians who resigned their plum positions to contest for the governorship race when he had already made up his mind to hand over to his anointed candidate.”

 

He said, “Everybody has the right to aspire to any position and I lack the constitutional powers to prevent anyone from testing his popularity in an open contest. Resignation from public office is part of the requirements for political office seekers, hence, it would be wrong for anyone to blame the governor for an action one deliberately took in conformity with the electoral laws.”

The governor, who insisted that he had not anointed or imposed any candidate, said he strongly believed that the PDP governorship candidate would emerge through a credible primary in line with the party’s position that the Abia-South senatorial district should be allowed to produce the next governor in the spirit of fairness and equity.

He said that Kalu should be ignored as he was only bent on blackmailing the state government for selfish political reasons.