Former Governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has launched a fresh counter-offensive against Governor Alex Otti, directly challenging the Governor’s political relevance and daring him to a personal confrontation.
The fresh salvo from the former Governor’s camp comes barely 24 hours after the State Government, through the Governor’s media aide, Ferdinand Ekeoma, issued a statement questioning Senator Kalu’s political influence in his own constituency.
The State Government’s rebuttal had centered on a potent question: if Senator Kalu was such a strong pillar for the All Progressives Congress (APC), why did President Bola Tinubu lose decisively in the Senator’s home Local Government Area, Bende, during the 2023 elections?
The statement had described Kalu’s repeated vows to deliver APC in Abia as “pedestrian and ludicrous,” asserting that Governor Otti had never sought his support.
However, in a press statement released on Tuesday and signed by George Maduka for the Senator’s Media Office, Kalu did not only dismissed the Governor’s taunts but went on the offensive, turning the spotlight back on Otti’s own political journey.
The statement offered a starkly different narrative of the 2023 elections. It claimed that Governor Otti had “grossly overrated himself politically,” and revealed that it took the “intervention of key stakeholders across Abia State” to rally support for him before his eventual victory.
The statement challenged Governor Otti to publicly deny a late-night visit. “The statement challenged Governor Otti to deny that he personally visited Senator Kalu’s residence in Igbere late at night on the eve of the election,” it read.
It argued: “If he was not relevant, why was his house in Igbere visited on the night before the election?”
The statement further argued that prominent figures in Otti’s own 2023 campaign, including the Labour Party’s State Coordinator, Chief Umeh Kalu, SAN, could not deny holding discussions with Senator Kalu concerning that election. “It questioned the logic of seeking such intervention if claims of political irrelevance were indeed true,” the release added.
Shifting from defense to direct provocation, Senator Kalu’s office challenged Governor Otti to drop what it called political subterfuge. It dared the Governor to “be bold enough to confront Senator Kalu directly instead of deploying what it described as idle media aides to issue press statements on his behalf.”
Reaffirming his political stance, the statement declared Senator Kalu’s “determination to deliver the APC at all levels in Abia State without apology or pretence.”
It drew a parallel with Governor Otti’s own partisan loyalty, noting that just as the Governor openly supported Peter Obi against President Tinubu, Senator Kalu has “openly declared that he will not abandon President Tinubu in 2027.”
The statement concluded with a full-throated endorsement of the national party, reaffirming “Senator Kalu’s total and unwavering loyalty to the APC and its leadership,” and stressing that his “commitment to the party’s success in Abia State remains resolute.”
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