An all-out fierce political battle looms large in Abia State as the state government says it may be compelled to throw its hat into the ring to square up with former Governor Orji Uzor Kalu.

The government said that Kalu has tasked its patience enough and could no longer fold its hands and watch the former governor to continue with his alleged plans to make Abia ungovernable.

Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dr. Eze Chikamnayo, made government’s feelings known yesterday in the state capital Umuahia while addressing newsmen.

“There is a deliberate and well-orchestrated attempt by some mischief makers masquerading as politicians to make the state ungovernable as part of their insidious 2015 agenda,” Chikamnayo said.

“Unfortunately and for self-centred reasons, some individuals have chosen to fly political kites. Our government consider this very premature. We still want to insist that on no account should any individual or group distract government from pursuing its legacy projects. It is too early in the day for political misfits to resort to all this unnecessary shenanigans;” the commissioner added.

He accused Kalu of trying to link the state government with his travails which include his purported return to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the withdrawal of his degree certificate by Abia State University, Uturu (ABSU) and a purported attack on his driver at his Igbere Camp Neya country home.

The commissioner denied government’s involvement in these matters, explaining that they were purely “institutional issues” for those concerned were independent and were capable of speaking for themselves.

Kalu, he alleged, was using these avenues to create tension in the Abia polity. “There have been a lot of plans by the former governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, to recruit young people to cause mayhem and label it activity of the state in his futile effort to curry unnecessary attention and perhaps undeserved sympathy from ignorant people,” he said.

Chikamnayo said that Kalu’s purported return to PDP was a matter for the party to handle while the unfolding ABSU saga was handled by the Senate of the university which, he said, dealt with the issue strictly based on its merit without any interference from government quarters.

“We do not want any individual or group to politicise that entirely academic exercise or to draw our government into the fray,” he warned.

On the alleged attack on Kalu’s driver at his Igbere home, the commissioner said the “purported shootout at his gate happened in the gate of his cerebral cortex somewhere in his imagination. It is a fabrication from the pit of hell, condemnable by all well-meaning and right thinking people.”

The commissioner lamented that while every former governor in Nigeria ought to be respected and be a voice of reason, a voice of moderation, a stakeholder in the development effort, “our former governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, unfortunately has made himself s professional rabble rouser, who cries wolf for effect where there is none. His decent into this abysmal valley of ignominy should be of concern to every well-meaning Abian because we would ordinarily have loved to have a former governor who would be a statesman.”

Continuing, Chikamnayo said: “We want to continue to urge the former governor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, to restrain himself, restrain his utterances, restrain his flagrant abuse of privileges and respect, if nothing else, the hallowed office that he once occupied like some of his contemporaries around have done.

“If he resorts to thuggery and denigrates himself as he is already doing, we may be compelled to do what is needful to maintain law and order within our clime.

“We want to warn that this government would not allow any individual or group to disrupt this great atmosphere of peace, security and conviviality Governor T. A. Orji and indeed all stakeholders of Abia have put together through a lot of sacrifice.”

•Photo: Abia Information Commissioner, Dr. Eze Chikamnayo (right), with the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezuo, addressing a press conference on the face-off between Gov. Orji and his predecessor, Orji Kalu . . . yesterday in Umuahia.

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