Orji Uzo Tells Christians To Relax, Tinubu’s Wife Is Senior Pastor For Muslim-Muslim Ticket
Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu has appealed to Christians in Nigeria not to worry over speculations that the All Progressives Congress, APC may consider a Muslim vice presidential candidate for its flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Kalu, who made the appeal, while addressing journalists at the National Assembly, stated that Christians shouldn’t feel threatened over such a move, because Tinubu’s wife, Oluremi Tinubu, a Senator representing Lagos East Senatorial District, is a Senior Pastor.
His words: “Do you want me to speak the truth, if I am in Ahmed Bola Tinubu’s situation. I will go Muslim-Muslim ticket. The most important thing is for the party to win. We should stop all this rubbish about whether you put a Christian, after all the wife is a pastor and she is already like a deputy president.”
The former Governor of Abia state said, “Let me tell you, in my house, my wife is the head of the house in reality. Even you men that are here, now that your wives aren’t here, they are the head. Like if I wear this cloth, my wife will tell me ‘My dear, this cloth is not good to remove.
“Your wife will tell you you are supposed to eat Akara and Akamu, whether you argue with her, you must take that Akamu and your wife wants you to pay children school fees, whether you argue or not, you must pay.
“The Christians should relax because Tinubu’s wife is a pastor and once she’s a pastor we are protected because she’s not a housewife. She has political knowledge,” he said.
Prior to the APC primary, Kalu was a frontline campaigner for the presidency of President of the Senate, Ahmed Lawan, who was perceived to be the consensus presidential candidate of the ruling party.
Recall that, the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordered the suspension of the re-trial of a former Abia State governor, Orji Kalu, for N7.1bn fraud charges.
The judge, Inyang Ekwo, who made the order in a ruling granting permission to Mr Kalu to file a motion to challenge the re-trial.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had on February 2, 2021, informed the judge that the proper forum for the trial of the case was the Lagos Division of the court, not Abuja.
The court ruled that the leave granted the defendant would operate as a stay of proceedings, even when section 306 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015, prohibits all Nigerian courts from entertaining an application for stay of proceedings in criminal matters.
Besides, the order halting the retrial negates the May 8, 2020 judgment of the Supreme Court.
The EFCC had previously prosecuted and secured the conviction of Mr Kalu and his co-defendants on 39 counts of fraud involving about N7.1billion at the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The apex court ruled and held that the trial was a nullity on the grounds that Mr Idris, the trial judge, had been elevated to the Court of Appeal and no longer a judge of the Federal High Court as of the time he concluded the trial and handed down his verdict.
The leave granted Mr Kalu by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Monday permits him to commence a legal action aimed at prohibiting the EFCC from retrying him on the same alleged N7.1 billion money laundering charges.
He contended in his application for the permission that having been tried once by EFCC, convicted and sentenced in the same charge, FHC/ABJ/CR/56/ 2007, it would amount to double jeopardy for him to be subjected to a fresh trial on the same charge.
Meanwhile, the constituent has disowned Orji Uzor Kalu, Senator representing Abia North and the Chief Whip for asking the All Progressive Congress, APC, presidential candidate, Alhaji Ahmed Bola Tinubu, a Muslim, to pick a fellow Muslim as his running mate.
Kalu who insisted that there was nothing wrong if Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, runs a Muslim-Muslim ticket, said that it would be politically naive for Tinubu, a minority Muslim from the South-West to choose a minority Christian from the North as his running mate.
But in a swift response, his constituents dismissed Kalu’s remarks as “shameful and disappointing”, saying he only spoke for himself and his pocket.
In his reaction, the paramount traditional ruler of Abiriba ancient kingdom, HRM Eze Kalu Kalu Ogbu (Enachoken), said the comment by the former Governor if truly he made such a remark was “strange, unbelievable and illogical”.
He argued that the religious plurality of Nigeria did not favour a joint ticket of same religion, hence, anybody suggesting otherwise should be disregarded.
” The ideas is strange. I don’t think he made such advocacy but if he did, he didn’t speak for Abia North, he didn’t speak for Ndigbo because such a comment doesn’t make sense at all. It’s very inappropriate.”
Similarly, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Abia North, Dr Isaac Nkole, said that Kalu had since, lost political steam and was only trying to warm his way to Tinubu’s camp after opposing his presidential ambition.
Dr Nkole said “it is very embarrassing for a supposed Senator in Kalu’s ranking to advocate Muslim/Muslim or even Christian/Christian ticket in a religious sensitive and plural state like Nigeria.”
He argued that “religion and ethnicity have unfortunately remained Nigeria’s fault lines which must not be dismissed with a wave of the hand in the interest of peace and national cohesion.”
” Abia North will never again be represented by a political rolling stone ready to sell our future for a pot of porridge. The other time somebody said he brought RUGA to Lokpanta which is today a source of constant sorrow to the state. Today, somebody is championing Muslim/Muslim ticket. Is this part of lawmaking? How many bills has he sponsorsed? Must he always be in the news for the wrong reason?
” How did Abia North get to this point? Should Kalu not be ashamed that Tinubu who was Governor same time with him is today miles ahead of him politically? Should he keep advertising greed and shortsightedness?
” When Tinubu was busy building people Kalu was building Camp Neya. Both of them were in the presidential race but Kalu suddenly pulled out and began to shout Lawan and Northern presidency even against his fellow Igbo aspirants.
” Today, because he saw that his Lawan has been swept away by the Jagaban force that is why he has become Tinubu’s self-appointed adviser. What is he afraid of? Could that be a smart way of stopping a possible re-opening of his EFCC case by an eventual Tinubu administation?
“At the time he was supporting Lawan ,his party was saying that power should shift to South. How many of his Northern colleagues can do same for the South the way he is shamelessly doing?”
Uzor Kalu, a serving senator representing Abia North and Senate’s Chief Whip, was convicted alongside Ude Udeogu, a former director of finance and accounts with the Abia State Government, and Mr Kalu’s company, Slok Nigeria Limited.
The trial judge, Mohammed Idris, who is now a Justice of the Court of Appeal, sentenced Mr Kalu to 12 years imprisonment and Mr Udeogu to 10 years jail term.
But the Supreme Court, on May 8, 2020, in a unanimous judgment of its seven-member panel, nullified the judgment and ordered a retrial.
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