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Orji Inherited N29 Billion Debt Burden From Orji Kalu-The Untold Story

July 5, 2010
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This is the Nigerian Tribune Report:
Former Abia State governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, left a debt burden of N29.2 billion without a kobo in the account as credit balance, when he left the saddle in 2007, national chairman of the Progressive Peoples Alliance(PPA), Lisa Olu Akerele, has disclosed.
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Akerele said in a press statement in Abuja on Monday, that Chief Kalu owed the banks N19.2 billion; debts to local contractors were N7.9 billion, pension harmonisation arrears N600 million, while gratuities were in arrears was to the tune of N1.4 billion as of May 2007.

He noted that monthly interests on the loans were so high that they depleted the state’s allocation from the Federation Account “which suffered deductions at source for these unwarranted debts.”

He said that these debt weighed down heavily on the performance of the governor, Chief Theodore Orji, who in spite of these debts had continued to forge ahead in the development of Abia State.

Akerele maintained that most of the bank loans were sourced by Chief Kalu for personal businesses and ingratiation of his hirelings, who now stood behind him in the PPA.

He disclosed, that much of the presidential campaign expenses of Chief Kalu in 2007 were sourced from the state coffers, urging the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to gather more information from the state government in order to ensure a conviction of the former governor standing trial.

Akerele also advised Governor Orji to open up to the EFCC on his former boss so that an iron cast case could be established against Chief Kalu to nail him once and for all, over his financial recklessness and the plundering of Abia State resources.
 
What the Tribune story did not state was that the current governor of Abia, Theodore Orji (shown here in his underwear swearing allegiance to his predecessor, Orji Uzor Kalu, and the former governor’s thieving mother, Eunice Uzor Kalu – known as Mother Excellency) was part of the looting gang that operated in the state from 1999 to 2007. Mrs. Eunice Kalu owns a $1.7 million house in Texas (shown above). Theodore Orji was installed governor after pledging to permit the Kalus to continue their stranglehold on the resources of Abia State. And he became governor in an election whose massive rigging was supervised by Maurice Iwu, the criminally minded former chair of INEC.

In fact, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested Theodore Orji shortly after his nomination as the gubernatorial candidate for the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) – from which he has now jumped ship. The EFCC alleged that Orji, along with three other arrested senior Abia State officials, embezzled close to 40 billion naira (320 million USD) on behalf of Orji Uzor Kalu.

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