Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, a federal legislator from the Abia South senatorial district, has revealed his experiences during his time as Orji Uzor Kalu’s deputy governor before leaving in 2003 as a result of the third effort to impeach Kalu.
On June 8, Abaribe spoke to media during a roundtable discussion in Umuahia, the seat of Abia state. He described how Orji Uzor Kalu reportedly took away his convoy and gave it to his wife soon after they were sworn in as governor and deputy governor of the state.
He said;
“I was sitting at the podium in Umuahia stadium, there was a flashback, I remembered exactly what happened to me as a deputy governor.
“I went to shake the now deputy governor, Emetu, and I looked at him and I just laughed you know why? On the day I was sworn in, I took the oath first, the governor, Kalu, took the oath, after everything was done and we were to go to Okpara auditorium for lunch, I couldn’t find my vehicle.
“The vehicle was given to me by the departing colonel Obi, a convoy, and we stood there, I and my wife, and we were looking, where is the convoy? Eventually, we managed to scramble into a relative’s vehicle to take us to the event centre.
“We found out that from the field there, somebody had given instruction for the convoy to move and that they were no longer my convoy and it was now designated as the convoy of the wife of the governor.
“When I confronted the governor the next Monday, I said what happened? he said “I didn’t know, they just told me it is my wife’s convoy and I said ok, let them move it. This is the kind of things that people see in politics.
“There are two ways to react; you lie back and take it or you strongly protest and then you are tagged a trouble maker.”
Orji Uzor Kalu, who is vying to lead the 10th Assembly’s senate, has not yet responded to the accusation.