2023 Presidency throws up challenge for Orji Kalu
OpenLife Nigeria reports that Senate Majority Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu may find the road to his 2023 presidential interest very rough, thorny and undulating.
This assumption came against the backdrop of the renewed desires of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to prosecute him on the grounds of financial recklessness when he was in office as a governor.
Orji Uzor Kalu was governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Speaking with State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday, the Chairman of the Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, said the commission would prosecute Senator Orji Kalu, again.
He said Kalu “will be prosecuted all over again.”
Kalu had been convicted up to the Court of Appeal before the Supreme Court set him free on technical grounds.
Bawa who also said the commission is set to begin prosecution of 800 new corruption cases maintained that EFCC under his watch would leave no stone unturned in ensuring that individual involved in infractions are prosecuted.
However, an EFCC insider who spoke with OpenLife Thursday afternoon on the condition of not being mentioned disclosed that the fresh case against Kalu is water tight.
“They are not done with Orji Kalu yet. The case against him is very tight and it will be difficult for him not to serve jail terms.
“What you quoted to chairman to have said is just a tip of the iceberg. I am very sure his presidential aspiration are some of the reasons his case is of particular interest to powerful politicians.
“Though it is his right to show interest in the 2023 presidency, he needs to be more strategic because he is not getting younger to be able to withstand jail terms should they send him to prison, ” the credible source stated.
Orji Kalu is the chairman of SLOK Holding and the Daily Sun and New Telegraph newspapers in Nigeria. He is reputed to worth about $600 million dollars and arguably, the richest man in Abia State
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