Posted by By Tobi Soniyi and Geoffrey Ekenna on
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said that the claim by former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, that he is not a director in companies belonging to the Slok Group, is a lie.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has said that the claim by former Governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, that he is not a director in companies belonging to the Slok Group, is a lie.
The anti-graft commission's stand was contained in the documents attached to the 107 charges filed against the former governor at the Federal High Court, Abuja.
The commission will rely on the documents to prove the charges against Kalu.
Kalu's spokesman, Mr. Iyke Ekeoma, and the management of The Sun Publishing Limited, said the EFCC was pursuing a political agenda, by freezing the assets of the former governor.
The commission submitted that as at October 20, 2004, Kalu, though a serving governor, was still a director in Slok Nigeria Limited, Neya Nigeria Limited, Slok Shipping Limited, Slok Pharmaceutical Limited, Slok Properties Limited, Mak Travels Agency Limited and Astel Offshore Limited.
When confronted with the allegation that contrary to law, he remained a director of the companies while in office as governor, Kalu said, 'In 1999 when I became a governor, I resigned from the company in a letter which I will forward to EFCC and which I have sent to the Code of Conduct Bureau. I wrote to Slok Nigeria Limited asking them to remove my name as a director.
'I did not check or confirm from Slok management whether they have removed my name or not."
The former governor, who denied any wrong doing, said that he started trading in vegetable oil in 1983 but later went into manufacturing of vegetable oil in Borno State and later Imo State.
He said in his statement made under caution, 'I started this business with the help of my parents with N5,000."
He made the first statement to EFCC's officials on July 11, 2007, and another statement on July 12, 2007.
Kalu added that some of the funds declared missing by EFCC were within his powers as the Chief Executive adding, 'It was not to my knowledge that these funds were missing."
He, however, admitted that a company, Firmbase Nig Ltd, which he said belonged to his brother, Johnson Uzor, supplied cars to Abia State Government.
Meanwhile, Kalu has said that his successor, Governor Theodore Orji, who served as his Chief of Staff, would be in a better position to explain the disbursement of the state funds.
In a statement he made to the commission on the July 11 and 12, 2007, Kalu said he was in total dark on how Orji disbursed the monies, though he confessed that he gave approvals for the drawing of the funds.
Kalu said that throughout his tenure, he did not meddle in the awards of contracts.
But in separate statements made available to our correspondent, Ekeoma, Kalu's Media Adviser, and the management of the Sun newspaper, accused the EFCC of pursuing a political vendetta against Kalu for opposing the failed third term plot of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
Ekeoma said that the assets freezed by the anti-corruption agency were the ones the embattled former governor declared in his asset declaration forms in 1999 and 2003.