POLITICAL party affiliation was, yesterday jettisoned when former governor of the state and Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA) candidate for the March 5 re-run election for Abia North senatorial district, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu kickstarted his campaign and constituents vowed to ensure his victory.
The campaign train took off from the Igbere country home of the eminent businessman and politician, at about 10:15am and as the convoy got to Abiriba junction, people cheered endlessly and on getting to a point at Amaekpu, Ohafia, the crowd became uncontrollable.
Kalu was greeted with a 10-gun salute. It was the same at Ihechiowa where another 10-gun salute was given in his honour. Here, the former governor briefly addressed the women and promised better things ahead if he is elected to the Senate.
Addressing his supporters in Arochukwu, Dr. Kalu told them that when he was the governor, he introduced free education and free healthcare for rural people among other numerous things he said he did for the people of the state. The politician said when he was governor, he never owed workers salaries nor did he owe pensioners their emoluments, saying that it was when he left office the state began to experience such anomalies.
He said his achievements in office made the Eze Aro to give him the highest title in the area, the ‘Ugwu Aro’ which he said he cherished till today.
The PPA candidate told his people that if elected, he will help rebuild the deplorable Ohafia/Arochukwu Federal Road before Chief Mao Ohuabunwa, the PDP candidate told them former president Olusegun Obasanjo cancelled it so that he (Kalu) would not take the credit.
Kalu regretted that Mao whom he described as his boy, was unable to, as a federal lawmaker, make the PDP controlled Federal Government reconstruct the road, stressing that such a person has no moral justification to tell his people he has failed for the past eight years to vote for him again. The former governor stressed that with such character, Mao has nothing to offer his people.
Kalu disclosed his relationship with President Muhammadu Bahuri before he assumed office on May 29, 2015 and said if he is elected into the Senate, he will cause the Federal Government to reconstruct the Arochukwu Road up to Calabar. “Mark my words, I have not said I’m going to reconstruct the road. I’m not going to be in the executive arm of government, but, I am going to use my influence to cause the Federal Government to reconstruct the road.”
Describing himself as a strong character, Kalu said people of Abia North need a person like him in the Senate and promised not to disappoint them if elected.
Speaking earlier, former commissioner for Information and Strategy in Chief Theodore Orji’s administration and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the zone, Chief Eze Chikamnanyo said stakeholders of Abia North across party lines recently met at Ohafia, the zone’s headquarters and decided to jettison party affiliations and support Kalu’s bid.
“All the parties in Abia North have resolved to support Kalu for his Senate bid because of what he did when he was governor of the state. Despite the fact that the Arochukwu Road is a federal road, when OUK wanted to reconstruct the road, it was your son, Mao who stalled it, and could not himself cause the Federal Government to re-build the road. Therefore, your son was a complete failure and deserves no other opportunity.”
Some women leaders who spoke at the rally, including 78-year-old Nwannediya Nwosu, Dame Bassie Okereke (National patron Nzuko Aro(women wing) )and Princess Monica Uche, all attested to the goodness of Kalu when he was governor.
They recalled how they benefitted from the free education and free healthcare of the former governor which they said was the reason they are supporting him despite the fact they are in different political parties.
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