Although she prides herself as the only state whose name is located in the Holy Bible, Abia state had, since creation in August of 1992, remained one of the worst governed states in Nigeria. (Pictures show, left, former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu and, right, his crony, incumbent Governor Theodore Orji)Perhaps, except the brief civilian administration of Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu which got terminated midway, the military regimes of Temi Ejoor and Moses Fasanya were, to say the least in a mild way, a bouquet of disaster, as the new state never experienced any lease of development.
Abians who taught that their state would change for better with the election of (Dr?) Orji Uzor Kalu as the fourth republic governor of the state in 1999 were dead wrong! Kalu who held the state hostage for good eight years from 1999 to 2007 came, saw, conquered, looted and is still looting the treasury of Ndi Abia.
At the expiration of his tenure, Orji Uzor Kalu, using the platform of his People’s Progressives Alliance (PPA), installed his crony (his erstwhile Chief of Staff), Chief Theodore Orji, who was then in prison, as governor.
It is, therefore, understandable why Governor Theodore Orji is methodologically toeing the rotten path of Kalu’s government. It is a well known fact that for the eight years Orji Kalu plundered Abia state, development was at a stand-still in the state. And why shouldn’t it be like that when he deployed funds of the state towards the establishment of his personal companies, including Slok Airline and Ship, as well as Sun Newspapers among others. Even when he is no longer governor, Orji Uzor Kalu continues to suck Abia state’s treasury to death.
At the moment, KlinReports learnt that Orji Uzor Kalu, tidying up plans for his presidential campaigns come 2011, coaxed the Abia House of Assembly, of course, dominated by members of his party (PPA), to pass a bill authorizing the state government to secure N30billion Bond from the capital market. Abia state House of Assembly is made up of 16 legislators while the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has only 8.
We learned that, rather than the reasons adduced, Abia state government is, actually, going for the bond for the sole purpose of sponsoring Orji Uzor Kalu’s 2011 presidential bid.
And this is evidenced by the nature of projects included in the bond bill by Theodore Orji government to the state legislature for approval. The listed projects included roads which the government claimed that the bill would finance, but investigations reveal that some of the listed projects had been paid for, either fully or partially.
An instance is the Umuahia-Ossah road which was recently commissioned by Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan- of which Orji government already spent over N10million advertising as one of his government achievements in his first year in government.
The other road project item in the Bill includes the Abia-Owerri road and the Aba-Port Harcourt road. Both contracts are valued at N5.2billion, of which the Orji government has already reportedly paid out the entire money.
Even more interesting, the N5.2billion contract for the two roads, which are federal roads, was awarded to two firms, Zerock Construction Company and JPROS Limited who, it was discovered, belongs to Orji Uzor Kalu and Theodore Orji respectively.
This situation becomes more heart-rending when one recalls that Abia state is already in red, owing several commercial banks in the country about N26billion. It will be recalled that a large chunk of this fund was used to prosecute the electoral petition brought against Governor Theodore Orji and his deputy, Chris Akoma by the PDP governorship candidate, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu.
Many indigenes of the state see the proposed heavy borrowing by the government of Abia state, being run by Orji Uzor Kalu dynasty, as a calculated scheme to defraud the state through the award and re-award of phantom projects.
Going down paved memory lane, the practice of plundering state monies via Bond is not new to Abia state.
Preparatory to his re-election in 2001, Orji Uzor Kalu, as governor, submitted a similar bill to the state House of Assembly for approval to seek a total amount of N15billion from the capital markets. The bond was to be collected in five stages. But the attempt was not successful even though the pliant state legislature approved it. The Bond did not work out because, as it was learnt, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo, and Abia Elders Forum, sabotaged it, and ensured that the capital markets did not approve the funds.
Yet, Orji Uzor Kalu moved to take another bond in 2007 as a result of huge expenses he, alongside his PPA, incurred in their two governorship victories in Abia and Imo states, as well as in his failed presidential bid in 2007. Governor Theodore Orji thus presented another bill to the state Assembly for a total amount of N50billion Bond from the capital markets. The government, using its officials, subsequently, mounted an intensive secret campaign to influence the capital markets. The trio, during the period, shuttled between Abuja and Lagos, the hub of the nation’s regulatory agencies and financial sector. But this attempt, also, failed.
The continued looting of the resources of Abia people by Orji Kalu and his gang is in addition to the on-going prosecution of the gang by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for laundering and diversion of Abia state’s funds to their personal pockets, crimes punishable under Section 17 of the Money Laundering [Prohibition] Act 2004. On trial are five of Kalu’s officials then including Governor Orji (former Chief of Staff), former Finance Commissioner, Moses Agoh, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Local Government, Elder S. Iheke, former Director of Finance and Supply, Government House, James Udeogu and Nnana Uzor.
But the on-going trial has not, in any way, served as a deterrent to the Orji Kalu dynasty from further looting the funds of ‘God’s Own State’. Aside the present controversial bond, Orji Uzor Kalu has continued to bestride the narrow walls of Abia politics like a colossus, further deepening the state’s financial crisis.
It is unfortunate that this is happening right in the full glare of prominent citizens of the state without challenge.
KlinReports, therefore, calls on well-meaning people of Abia to stand up against the on-going plundering of their state by economic monsters who have continued to hold the state to ransom.
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