Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

More groups and individuals have continued to pour derisions on the Senator representing Abia North, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu following the unguarded statements on Justice James Omotosho’s November 20 verdict on Nnamdi Kanu. 

The former Abia State governor raised not a few eyebrows and attracted scathing criticisms when he said things suggesting that he supported the life sentence imposed on the leader of IPOB and that Ndigbo were being sentimental. 

A diaspoea advocacy group, the Rising Sun Group described Kalu’s interview on Channels Television as a “disgraceful show” performed in a bid to curry political favours from the presidency. 

In a statement issued yesterday from its United States base, signed by its Chairman, Maxwell Dede and the Coordinator, Father Augustine Odinmegwa, the Rising Sun chided Kalu for “shamelessly” defending Justice Omotosho’s controversial judgment. 

Kalu claimed in the interview that 30,000 people had died due to the agitation for Biafra self-determination championed by IPOB and its leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, whose angry reaction in court in the face of injustice, he also condemned. 

But the Rising Sun Group said that it would have been honourable for Senator Kalu to remain quiet “if he had nothing useful to say” than going about “lambasting Nnamdi Kanu over his angry reaction to the barefaced injustice meted to him by Justice Omotosho.”

“Although we are embittered at such reckless remarks, we are, however, not surprised because we know that a leopard can never change the colour of its skin. 

“Senator Kalu did not only confirm the long-held suspicion in many quarters that he is among the Igbo elite ready to play any role because of political interest,” the group said. 

The Rising Sun expressed dismay over Kalu’s “wild claims of his purported instrumentality in securing Kanu’s release in 2017”, and even “disparaged the Igbo and all those who felt disappointed over the said judgement which can only pass for travesty of justice”. 

“We want to warn him and other serial Igbo traitors to desist from using Nnamdi Kanu’s matter to play politics. 

“If he believes he has the powers and influence to get Kanu’s debacle resolved politically, what is restraining him from doing so all the while? 

“As a chieftain of the ruling party, former governor and political age-mate of President Ahmed Tinubu, Orji Uzor Kalu should not be waiting for anybody again to lead the move for political solution to Kanu’s release,” said the Rising Sun. 

The group faulted Senator Kalu’s referencing his own conduct in court during his trial for financial crime, saying that there was no basis for comparison with Kanu’s conduct during his trial for “trumped up terrorism charges.”

“It is an insult on Ndigbo for Senator Kalu to attempt to shamelessly cite his said calmness during his trial for financial fraud, as opposed to Nnamdi Kanu’s alleged unruly behaviour at the court during his legal persecution called trial. 

“Senator Kalu should understand that there is no nexus between the offence for which he was convicted and jailed and the trumped-up charges, biased trial, of subsequent strange conviction of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu,” said the Rising Sun. 

The diaspora group advised the Abia North senator to “stop embarrassing himself in his desperation for political relevance, noting that “if not for Nigeria’s flawed electoral system, Orji Kalu and his type will have no business in  governance.”

It stated that whatever politics he wants to play, “what Ndigbo will not accept from Orji Uzor Kalu is any attempt to use Kanu’s matter to curry favour from the Presidency.”

According to the group, the former Abia governor “is only smart by half for thinking that he could resort to unguarded utterances and reckless vituperation against the IPOB leader in order to win Tinubu’s favour, possibly for a return ticket in 2027.”

The statement read in part: “It is an open secret that Orji Uzor Kalu was among those who vigorously opposed Tinubu’s presidential bid in 2023, when he openly campaigned for the the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan. 

“Nigerians are not daft as Senator Kalu thinks. They already know the real motive behind his suden love for President Tinubu. 

“Since Orji Uzor Kalu claims that over 30,000 people were killed in South-east as a result of the agitation by Nnamdi Kanu, can he tell the world who authorised the said killings? 

“Will Senator Kalu feign ignorance of the genocidal killing of IPoB members by security agencies without any provocations? Was he referring to the massacre of IPoB members praying at Nkpor and Onitsha or those praying at the National High School Aba, or Biafra agitators massacred in Port Harcourt during a pro-Trump rally? 

“How could Orji Uzor Kalu justifiably blame  IPoB members who are rather the hapless victims of the brutality of security operatives for an offence they are innocent of? 

“We warn Orji Uzor Kalu and his fellow political opportunists to refrain from further unguarded and treacherous remarks concerning Kanu’s ordeal. History will judge anyone who betrays his people for selfish gains.”

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