The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has reacted to Thursday’s ‘ill-advised conviction‘ of former Governor of Abia and Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, by a Lagos State High Court.
Chairman of the APC in Abia, Chief Donatus Nwankpa, said in an interview with journalists that he was disappointed and angry with the “arranged court judgment”.
Nwankpa, who was a member of the Abia State House of Assembly when Sen. Kalu was governor, said that the judgment was not fair.
“The party will meet to take a position on the judgment but as an individual, I am very saddened by the judgment.
“I am not convinced that judgment was given,” he said, adding that the court’s verdict sustained his doubts about the integrity and objectivity of the nation’s judiciary.
Chief Nwankpa said that he never had the confidence that Sen. Kalu would get judgment, “considering the utterances of the judge.”
“I’m highly convinced that something went wrong. The judgment is not fair,” he insisted.
On his part, Maduka Okoro, the South-East Media Aide to Kalu, told newsmen that Sen. Kalu would appeal the judgment “to allow other judges and a higher court take another look at the case.”
Okoro said that Kalu was not bothered by the judgment but considered it as one of the travails that every leader must experience “before becoming what God wants him to be.”
He expressed optimism that the judgment would be reversed by a higher court, adding that Sen. Kalu would be acquitted at last.
He said that as governor, Sen. Orji Kalu administered Abia transparently and never defrauded the state.
Kalu was Abia governor from 1999 to 2007 and won election to the Senate in the 2019 election under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
