The Senate Minority Leader,
Enyinnaya Abaribe, said he was taken to a shrine to swear an oath of loyalty 24
hours before inauguration as deputy governor in 1999.
Abaribe was deputy governor to
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu from May 29, 1999 till March 2003 before he resigned and
defected to the defunct All Nigerian People’s Party.
Abaribe stated this in his new
book, ‘Made in Aba’ which was launched in Abuja on Monday.
He explained that the former Aba North Local Government Area Chairman, one Chief Duru, and Kalu’s younger brother, Uzor, took him to “a so-called prophet” on School Road, Aba, in Abia State.
He said, “On the matter of loyalty
by ordeal, whereby people were made to swear allegiance on all sorts of
objects, my experience was that some people around Kalu took it upon themselves
to engage in invidious activities, purporting to be directed by him.
“In my case, on the night before
swearing into office, the then Aba North Local Government Chairman
informed me that Kalu’s people were not comfortable with me as I had not
sworn to anything.
“Here I was, being lectured, nay,
more like being intimidated with verses from the Bible, hinging the act on
notion like ‘you people will be my people…’ and the like. Was that Bible not
what I stood on to insist I was a Christian?
“What big secret mission were we
embarking on that required that much effort to ensure loyalty? Loyalty to
what? Were we not to swear loyalty to
the people rather than to the person of the Governor? Yes, I was that much of a
greenhorn in politics!”
Abaribe further said, “At the end of the day, the
participant not only got to fear the principal, but also these individuals who
had privileges to convince such principal’s of the measures they had taken to
secure their quarries in a zombie-like state.
“Well, I was not about to subject myself to any authority
beyond the law. I was not about to look to any unidentified office beyond that
of the governor, whom I had given my word to assist in delivering good
governance.”
Orji Kalu keeps mum
on Abaribe’s allegations
Meanwhile, the Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu, had
yet to speak on the allegations by the Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya
Abaribe in his latest book, ‘Made in Aba’.
The principal officer of the Senate said he was in a meeting
with the Senate President, when our correspondent called him on Tuesday.
He said, “I will speak with you later. I’m in a meeting with
the Senate President now.”
He had, however yet to respond to further calls and he
didn’t reply the text message sent to him, as of the time of filing this
report.
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