Posted by From LUCKY NWANKWERE, Abuja on
Former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu yesterday expressed surprise that even out of office, former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo could still hold him (Kalu) responsible for woes which he brought upon himself.
Former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu yesterday expressed surprise that even out of office, former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo could still hold him (Kalu) responsible for woes which he brought upon himself.
The former president was on Thursday reported as accusing Kalu of inciting his son, Gbenga against him by masterminding the affidavit he (Gbenga) had deposed to at a Lagos high court seeking to divorce his wife, Mojisola on account that his father slept with his wife, among other reasons.
Kalu told State House correspondents in Abuja yesterday after conferring with President Umaru Yar'Adua that he had neither seen nor spoken with Gbenga Obasanjo in the last one year, wondering how he could have incited him (Gbenga) against his father.
'I have not seen his son for about a year now. I have not seen him. I have not talked to him even on the phone in the last one year. How Gbenga got an affidavit against his father is what I don't know and how The Sun newspaper published it is also what I don't know.
'I want to tell you confidently, I am a man who speaks the truth and one who tries to say what is right. Contrary to the opinion of the former president, I have not seen his son since January last year. I saw him last in January. I talked to him last year in January. So it is not possible for me to have instigated him against his father", Kalu stated, advising Obasanjo to look elsewhere for who to blame for his woes.
On the contrary, the presidential candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in the 2007 election said it was the former president who had been commissioning many articles in the media against him (Kalu), all in his determination to continue to run him down.
He said it was a pity that the former president did not know that his son, Gbenga was not only forthright but had a mind of his own, calling attention to Gbenga's interview published in a weekly news magazine about two years ago in which he said that his father was indeed older than he claimed to be.
Reacting to a question on the former EFCC boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, the chairman of the PPA board of trustees said he (Ribadu) could have been good on the job but for the fact that he dabbled into politics and ended up messing himself up.
'When he started, he started very well and I supported him. But mixing politics with business was not the best. But I wish him well in his course", he stated.
On the call for the probe of the former president, Kalu said he was for it, but urged the Federal Government to institute a body entirely different from the EFCC and the ICPC which he alleged had been politicized, to investigate the former president.
Not until that is done, he said the anti-corruption war would not make much meaning to many people because people would see government as leaving the big fish to hunt down the smaller ones.
He suggested the setting up of a body, comprising largely of retired Supreme Court justices to handle the investigation of Obasanjo, expressing strong conviction that the findings of such a body would be more believable to people than those of any of the anti-corruption agencies.
He said if in the face of the Obasanjo tyranny, his former colleagues had heeded his advice at the time and risen to the occasion, the former president could not have become what he ended becoming and what is now happening to many of the former governors could have been avoided.
Kalu called for the support of all Nigerians for the electoral reform being championed by President Yar'Adua, pointing out that the president had so far shown forthrightness over the issue and that the country would be the best for it.