CONFUSION IN ABIA PDP AS ORJI UZOR KALU REJOINS PARTY

Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu

Confusion has enveloped Abia State Chapter of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) following the readmission of a former Governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, into the party.

Kalu was welcomed back to the party on January 16,2013 by his Igbere Ward A Chairman, Joseph Chika who presented him with membership card with registration number 9787945. But in a swift reaction, officials of the party at the state level has descried as charade the readmission saying that the Serial Numbers of the purported PDP Membership cards issued to Igbere Ward A begin with 95, not 97. The state Chairman of PDP, Senator Emma Nwaka, and Bende Local Government PDP chairman, Chief Ihendu Igwe, stated this at a joint news briefing at the party secretariat in the state capital, Umuahia, emphasizing that the entire executives of Igbere Ward A and B resigned en masse on January 10 this year and were not in a position to admit any person into the party. However, the Chairmen of Wards A and B, Joseph Chika and Amadi Kalu respectively, have refuted their said resignation in a joint statement insisting that nothing like that happened but that the state excos unconstitutionally and illegally dissolved their executive councils. It will be recalled that Kalu’s return to PDP after leaving the party in 2007 to form the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), has been a matter of controversy in the state. It was gathered that some well known PDP figures in the state have been making attempts to block the former governor’s comeback bid following his estrangement from his successor, Governor Theodore Orji.