Less than 24 hours before the National Assembly election, the Senate Chief Whip, and Senator representing Abia North, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has reportedly been suspended by the All Progressives Congress, APC.
However, the party in Abia State has dismissed reports that it suspended Kalu.
Denying the report, the party’s Spokesperson, Okey Ezeala, described the reports as the handiwork of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
According to a terse statement signed by Ezeala the party distanced itself from the report stating that there is no iota of truth in it describing the report as false.
Ezeala said that the malicious write-up is occasioned by the PDP’s fright to accept tomorrow’s imminent defeat. According to the spokesman, “Senator Orji Uzor Kalu remains the candidate of our great party as both the party and his constituents are satisfied with his performance.”
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that Kalu has been at loggerheads with the leadership and members of Abia APC over allegations that the former Abia Governor has been undermining and sabotaging the party in the state.
Kalu served as Governor of Abia State from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007. He is the chairman of SLOK Holding and the Daily Sun and New Telegraph newspapers in Nigeria.
Prior to his election, he served as the chairman of the Borno Water Board and the chairman of the Cooperative and Commerce Bank Limited.
Kalu was also a member of the PDP, Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and the chairman of the PPA Board of Trustees.
He was the party’s presidential candidate in the April 2007 general election. He is currently a member of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) after he officially announced his resignation as the PPA BOT chair.
Kalu contested in the 2019 Nigerian general election to represent the people of Abia North in the senate, running under the banner of APC. He defeated the incumbent senator Mao Ohuabunwa with over 10,000 votes.