Posted by By TOPE ADEBOBOYE, PHILLIP NWOSU and OLA JAMES (London) on
Abia State Governor, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu has cautioned President Olusegun Obasanjo against employing unconstitutional tactics to bar his political opponents from participating in the forthcoming polls, warning that such acts would plunge the country into chaos.
Abia State Governor, Dr Orji Uzor Kalu has cautioned President Olusegun Obasanjo against employing unconstitutional tactics to bar his political opponents from participating in the forthcoming polls, warning that such acts would plunge the country into chaos.
He has also pledged to waive his immunity and face any law courts if the federal government and its agencies could adduce evidence to show him as corrupt.
Speaking in separate interviews on Africa Independent Television (AIT), Lagos and Ben TV, London, Kalu observed that the President's actions and utterances were similar to the ones that created chaos in some African countries, including Congo, Somalia and Uganda.
"This is what happened in Congo, Somalia and Uganda and its unacceptable to me," Kalu said.
The governor, also the presidential flagbearer of the Peoples Progressive Alliance (PPA), expressed strong displeasure over his purported indictment for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and accused the President of condoning corruption under his nose.
"This is corruption in Nigeria under the President's table which he knows. There is corruption among those around him," Kalu said Wednesday on an AIT programme, Democracy Today, noting that he had complained about corruption within the presidency in a letter to Obasanjo three years ago.
Kalu accused the President of engaging in a show-off with the anti-corruption war in order to cover up the failure of his administration and challenged him to publish his assets for all Nigerians to see.
Earlier, while addressing a live media session on Ben TV at the weekend, the governor had promised to submit himself for prosecution if there was proven evidence of corruption against him.
"I challenge Ribadu to publish my corrupt practices and I will then waive my immunity to appear before any court," he declared. "If I was corrupt, it should have come earlier. If I'm corrupt, it should come from a competent court and I will answer that."
Kalu, who said Obasanjo paid off Nigeria's debts to court the Western powers to support his tenure elongation plans, regretted that the EFCC which began well had transformed into a tool used by the President to persecute his opponents.
He pledged to turn Nigeria around and ensure that Nigerians in the diaspora were allowed to participate in elections if he was voted President in the coming elections.