Orji Uzor Kalu fights back; ...insists ABSU and Governor Orji cannot withdraw his certificate

Former governor of Abia state, Orji Uzor Kalu, has tackled his successor and current governor, Theodore Orji, describing him as a “political neophyte”, in an unfolding clash that saw Mr. Kalu stripped of an academic degree by the state university.

The Abia State University, on Saturday, announced the withdrawal of its Bachelors degree in Government and Public Administration, from the former governor, claiming it found out Mr. Kalu’s admission was flawed.

Mr. Kalu, who had earlier dropped out of the University of Maiduguri before becoming governor, enrolled for the ABSU programme while he was governor. The incumbent governor, was his chief of staff then.

The school said Mr. Kalu did not complete the programme when he was issued with a degree certificate.

Still, the school’s decision, some six years after he left office, is seen by many as part of a long-running rift between the Mr. Kalu and his successor, Mr. Orji.

In a statement Sunday, Mr. Kalu said the recent decision to revoke the degree was the “latest in the failed attempts of Orji to silence him.”

“What the Senate of ABSU has done amounts to shifting the goal post after the goal has been scored,” Mr. Kalu’s spokesperson, Oyekunle Oyewunmi, said in the statement.

“No one can deny the fact that His Excellency (Kalu) was in ABSU for lectures and examinations. And how do you withdraw a degree that has been duly awarded?

“And to think it is the same Senate that awarded it that is withdrawing it. It is obvious where the drummer is playing for the Senate to dance from.”

Mr. Oyewunmi said the former governor will “definitely react appropriately” to the school’s decision.

The spokesperson said Mr. Kalu was currently in Gambia overseeing “some of his multibillion dollar businesses.”


be sociable, share...