Kalu seeks reconciliation with Orji

IN a move described as belated fence-mending, the immediate past governor of Abia State and the chairman of the Board of Trustees (BOT) ...

of the defunct Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, has allegedly been making moves to win the heart of Governor Theodore Orji.

Authoritative sources close to the two political allies revealed that the former governor was already regretting the culminating situation that made the governor to leave PPA and thus cause the collapse of the party. The sources also said that the former governor had been making series of phone calls and had been sending emissaries to Governor Orji in an attempt to placate him to forget the past in the interest of their long established relationship.

The former governor wanted to use Governor Orji’s rising profile and credibility in the presidency to gain acceptance of the Abia State PDP, which had allegedly kicked against his return into the party. The sources, which said Governor Orji had tried to maintain a long distance from his former boss after his defection from the PPA, added that the governor was still bitter over the antics of the cronies of the former governor, who, they said, had tried to rubbish the administration of Governor Orji.

The governor was not considering any renewed relationship with his former boss, as against the speculation that the ongoing animosity between the two political allies was a political game towards 2011 elections. The sources, which said Governor Orji was not ready to engage his former boss in any political war in the interest of peace of the state and his background as a civil servant, added that the governor was aware that all the media attack against him were being orchestrated by the cronies of the former governor and had left everything in the hands of God.

In his reaction to the development, a former commissioner in the administration of the former governor said Chief Kalu was a peace-loving person that would not want to heat up the polity with any reaction on the unfolding political matter in the state.

Meanwhile, Governor Orji has said he did not leave the PPA because of the desperation to actualise his second term ambition. Speaking through his Special Adviser on Media (Electronics), Ugochukwu Emezue, the governor said his second term ambition was not a do-or-die affair, adding that he would have secured PPA governorship ticket and won the election if he had stayed.

Orji, who said he would never go back to the PPA, added that he left the party because of the antics of its leadership.