Former governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu, has given the APC gubernatorial candidate Uche Ogah conditions upon which he would support him for the governorship election coming up March 9, 2019.
A source close to Kalu, who was declared winner of the Abia North Senatorial election last Saturday by INEC, revealed that Kalu made his proposal to Ogah when the duo met at an undisclosed location in Abuja, shortly after the presidential and national assembly elections.
We understand that apart from demanding that he should be given the right to nominate 10 commissioners, if Ogah wins the election, Kalu is also asking that his younger brother, Mascot, be pencilled down as Chief of Staff to the governor.
“Orji Kalu told Ogah that he can only support him on two conditions. First, is that Ogah must sign a formal agreement to give him the right to nominate 10 commissioners. The other is that Orji’s brother, Mascot, will serve as the chief of staff to Ogah”, the source revealed.
The portfolios that Orji Kalu is asking Ogah to cede to him include the ministries of Finance, Works & Housing, Local Government & Chieftancy Affairs and Environment.
The meeting, according to our source, was held at the instance of Uche Ogah, who is said not to be averse to Orji Kalu’s conditions, for as long as he wins the election.
Orji Kalu was a two-term governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007. His regime saw to the enthronement of his mother as the de facto governor of Abia State. Almost every political appointment was approved with the consent of his mother, who came to be known as, Mother Excellency.
Abia State, under Orji Kalu, was run as a family business, with the governor’s siblings holding strategic positions and handling critical state projects.
Orji Kalu was Theodore Orji’s godfather and for almost four years he ruled Abia by proxy. He remains the architect of the bad leadership and governance that have bedevilled the state in the last 20 years of PDP hegemony and looting of Abia State.
