Former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu To Contest For Senate

Former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu is set to contest for Abia North Senatorial District seat in the upper chambers come 2015 election, this is Contrary to in­sinuations that former Abia State Governor is not in the race for Abia North Senatorial District seat, his campaign organisation has said there is no truth in this.

South-East Zonal Coordi­nator of the Peoples Demo­cratic Party (PDP), Colonel Akunobi, was quoted on the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia State (BCA) at the weekend, to have said that Kalu had withdrawn from the senatorial election sched­uled for February next year.

Reacting to this, the Di­rector of Orji Uzor Kalu Senatorial Campaign Ogan­isation, Chief Emeka Ohia, stated that the former gov­ernor was not just in the race but is being rooted for by indigenes of the senatorial district.

He stated that Kalu had already obtained nomination form from the PDP and hav­ing filled it, would submit the form on Friday.

“Kalu is very much in the senatorial race. Colonel Aku­nobi is wrong to say that he is not in the race. We have collected the form and will submit it on Friday,” Ohia told Daily Sun.

The campaign director stated that as a member of the PDP, Kalu, who rejoined the party on January 16, 2012, duly obtained the nomina­tion form from the national secretariat, according to the guidelines.

He stated that the former governor would campaign in every nook and cranny of Abia North Senatorial Dis­trict and based on his over­whelming acceptance, he is looking forward to represent­ing the people of the area.

“Yes, Kalu is getting ready for the election. When cam­paign starts, we would visit all areas in Abia North to seek their votes. He did this in 2011 and won 78 per cent of the votes, but the riggers manipulated the results. De­spite that, he refused to go to court. In four years, Abia North has lost its quality rep­resentation. The people in Abia North know that Kalu will be an outstanding sena­tor and therefore, will always vote for him,” Ohia stated.

Kalu contested the Abia North Senatorial seat on the platform of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in 2011. He had earlier contest­ed for the Presidency in 2007 on the platform of PPA.

The former governor re­joined the PDP in 2012 and has participated in the activi­ties of the party ever since.

A foundation member of the PDP, Kalu left the part in 2007 to found the PPA, when he was deregistered along with others. The PPA won the governorship elections in Abia and Imo states as well as state House of Assembly and House of Representa­tives seats.