A former Abia State Governor, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, yesterday denied allegations that he stole N7.2 billion when he governed the state between 1999 and 2007.
Kalu averred that the state did not have such amount of money when he was governor.
Kalu made the denial while continuing his testimony before Justice Mohammed Idris of a Federal High Court in Lagos State to prove his innocence of the allegation leveled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The former governor said there was no way he could steal what was not in existence.
“Abia State doesn’t have such amount. Even the day I was leaving, we borrowed money to pay salaries. Abia State doesn’t have even a billion naira in any account at the time I was governor,” he said.
The former governor who is currently the Chief Whip of the Senate also spoke about the difficulties he encountered in running the state with allocations from federal government.
He said: The monthly allocation of Abia State when I took over in June 1999 was N168 million. It was hovering between N168 million and N172 million monthly. “The first month that I came in, there was even no money to buy diesel. I spent my own money to run the state for six months.
“In the year 2000, monthly allocation was between N170 million and N189 million. In 2001, it came to about N302 million and N380 million. I can recollect in 2002, it was almost the same and in 2003 when the revenue allocation was changed, we were having about N400 million.
“The highest money I got as governor came from 2004 when we have about N1 billion and from that time up till May 2007 before I left, what we had was N1.6 billion.
“Throughout my stay in office, I never owed workers and pensioners.”
Kalu also told the court that he was a successful businessman before venturing into politics.
“I was running a group of companies under Slok Nigeria Limited and I have a big furniture factory in Maiduguri. I was also trading in cows. The cows were coming from Chad to Umuahia. I also had a veritable oil factory in Aba supplying to people in Kano and Maiduguri.
“I was also into shipping activities with major oil companies. We also have a very big corn farm in the South East and Bauchi.
“We were a major shareholder before another shareholder bought off the First Bank. In 1994, the then Hallmark Bank had a problem and I later bought majority stake in the bank. We also had major interests in Banks in Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Sierra-Leone, Liberia and the then Sudan before crisis set in,” Kalu claimed.
The former governor further disclosed that he also deals in buying and selling of property at home and abroad.
He further disclosed that he made all his statements to the EFCC under bad treatment from some police officers.
“In all my statements, I did not admit commission of any offence. When I learnt they were looking for me, I called Ibrahim Lamorde that I was in the United States and that I will show up upon my return to the country.
“But when I returned to Nigeria, they were waiting for me at the airport and whisked me away to their office. After I was beating up thoroughly by police officers, I asked them what was my offence and they told me I have been insulting President Obasanjo. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu and Ibrahim Lamorde later came to apologize to me,” Kalu said.
The former governor further revealed that he was never given any opportunity to respond to the petition written by the Abia Leaders’ Forum (ALF) to the EFCC where allegations of fraud were raised against him.
He also told the court that he never handled the award of contracts as a governor.
“For accountability, a central account was made. I didn’t award contracts. Every commissioner was in charge of their ministry. I put a ceiling of a certain amount which a ministry can spend. We were the first state in Nigeria to publish our accounts and that is the reason Obasanjo tagged me ‘action governor,” he said.
The former governor subsequently closed his case. Afterwards, lawyer to the second defendant, Emmanuel Ukegbu, sought an adjournment for his client to open his defence.
He also informed the court that he had about five defence witnesses and he would present them all before the court.
Justice Idris granted the lawyer’s request and adjourned till today for the second defendant to open his defence.
