The Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Kalu, says he was imprisoned because there were people worried that he would be Nigeria’s president in 2023.

Mr Kalu stated this in a statement on Tuesday, adding that going to prison is a good experience for him.

The statement quoted Kalu to have said that his detractors were “little-minded to think he is ashamed of his prison experience.

“My conspirators thought I would be president in 2023, so they decided to cut my journey short at all cost.

“But you see, these people are not God. They think I am ashamed to have gone to prison.

“I am not, and I don’t blame them because they don’t know my relationship with God.

“Joseph went to prison, even former President Olusegun Obasanjo went to prison.

“My going to prison is part of my life script, and I am thankful God allowed it.

“They are little minds and wicked people who have refused to do any project for their own people.”

Kalu was jailed for 12 years on December 5, 2019, for misappropriating about N7.1 billion while serving as Abia governor between 1999 and 2007.

However, the Supreme Court on May 8, 2020, upturned his trial and conviction by Justice Muhammed Idris of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The apex court had said Idris lacked the jurisdiction to try the matter, having been elevated to the Court of Appeal.

According to the statement by his Media Aide, Peter Eze, some prominent Abia politicians, who were vexed by Kalu’s scathing criticism against the state government, accused him of still suffering from his prison experience.

But speaking at a campaign rally for Mascot Kalu, his younger brother, and the All Progressives Congress candidate for the March 27 Aba North/South Federal Constituency poll, Mr Kalu criticised the state government’s failure to address the huge infrastructure deficit in Abia.

He added that the ongoing road repairs in Aba were funded by the Niger Delta Development Commission and Federal Government and not Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration.

He further criticised the administration for failing to pay workers’ salaries as and when due regularly.

However, the Commissioner for Information, John Okiyi, said the government secured a N27.4 billion World Bank facility to fund road projects in Aba.

Mr Okiyi refuted that the federal government executed the projects, claiming that it does not build internal roads in states. 

(NAN)