Chief Whip of the Senate and former governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, on Monday night said he was thankful to God to have been imprisoned for six months.

He revealed that God allowed the conspiracy of his enemies because it is part of his life’s script.

Speaking in Aba North Ward 1 during his ward-to-ward campaign for All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Chief Mascot Uzor Kalu, for the Aba North/South Federal Constituency by-election scheduled to hold on Saturday, March 27, the former governor in response to statements by Abia State Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu and Senator representing Abia South Senatorial zone, Enyinnaya Abaribe alleging that he had not recovered from Kuje prison experience, Kalu said he was not ashamed of having gone to prison, which afforded him the opportunity of experiencing the other side of life.

Ikpeazu and Abaribe had stated that Kalu’s suggestion that road projects in Aba were funded by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) and the federal government was a clear pointer that something is wrong with him.

“It is either he is yet to fully recover from the effects of his several months of incarceration at the Kuje prisons or he is just plain ignorant,” the governor’s press statement read.

In his response, Kalu told a mammoth crowd in Aba that Abaribe was little minded to think he was ashamed of his prison experience.

He said Abaribe, who he picked from the gutters and made him deputy when he was Abia State governor, was busy supplying petitions to his conspirators because they were afraid he could be President in 2023.

Kalu said: “My conspirators thought I would be President in 2023 , so they decided to cut my journey short at all cost. Abaribe continued to supply petitions, but you see, these people are not God. They think I am ashamed to have gone to prison. I am not and I don’t blame them because they don’t know my relationship with God. They are little minds and wicked people who have refused to do any project for their own people. They have kept a centre table for you and called it bridge.

“You can’t even pay Common salaries and you are here swearing true to God, ‘na me build this road.’ The only road the state is constructing is the 600 meters road in Eziukwu which they have been building since last six years; that’s one year 100 meters. Compare my village and these people’s village and you will see how shameless they are. If you can’t build your own village, is it my own you will build?”

To his question, the crowd responded with a thunderous “Nooo.”

Continuing, Kalu said: “This is 10pm and I am here with you; can the governor or Abaribe come here? That is why in leadership you have to be with the people you are leading. They don’t understand this simple technique; all the projects they claim to be doing are all on radio, nothing on ground. Joseph went to prison; even Obasanjo went to prison. My going to prison is part of my life’s script and I am thankful God allowed it.”

Kalu last weekend lambasted the Abia State government for laying claims to World Bank NEMAP projects, NNDC and Federal government sponsored projects in Abia as state government funded projects.

He told a crowd in Igwebuike Hall in Aba South that he federal government of Nigeria was responsible for the N27 billion Ngwa road project and not the state government, saying: “a government that is owing over 23 months to Abia Polytechnic, 22 months to Abia Teaching hospital, 18 months to Health Management Board , 27 months to Technical School, Arochukwu, amounting over N29 billion as arrears of salaries, excluding pension, cannnot embark on a N27 billion road job. You cannot give what you don’t have .

“The senator representing you in the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe, has been in the Senate for 16 years and has done no single project in Abia South. He is busy speaking English as if English is what you need. You need infrastructure, you need good roads; you need schools and hospitals. Go to Abia North, just a year in the Senate, I have given them 19 roads, renovated schools, built hospitals, with many empowerment programme. Abaribe is so shameless that he doesn’t even have a road leading to his village in Umuekwensu.”

They think I am ashamed to have gone to prison. I am not and I don’t blame them because they don’t know my relationship with God… Joseph went to Prison