Orji Kalu, who is a serving senator
of the All Progressives Congress (APC) representing Abia North senatorial
district has been facing trial for over a decade after he was arraigned by the
Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly carting away
billions of naira while he served as Abia state governor. Following the
surprising conviction of Orji Kalu, we highlight three costly mistakes that may
have led to the current ordeal of the former governor.
1. Merging family business with
government business:
One of the errors Kalu made which
later came back to haunt him was that during his tenure as governor of Abia State between 1999 and 2007, he involved a family company in government
business. During his sentence on Thursday, December 5, the Federal High Court
in Lagos found the former governor guilty of using his company, Slok
Nigeria Limited to divert the sum of N7.65 billion from
the coffers of the state. This was a gross mistake by Kalu who should
have known that the proper thing for government officials to do is to avoid
conflicts of interest by separating their official duties from their companies
or private businesses. This principle of avoiding conflicts of interests
ensure that government money is not used to operate the private company of any
government official. Maybe Kalu would not have been convicted for fraud if he
had adhered to this important principle.
2. Accused of dipping hands into the
Abia state treasury
In an amended 39 count charge, the
EFCC had accused Kalu and Udeh Udeogu, a former director of finance and
accounts in Abia of illegally taking N460 million from Abia’s treasury. If the
politician was found guilty of this charge then it was likely another mistake
that worked against him. What many people fail to understand is that money
often leaves behind a trail of records, especially when moved in large
quantities. That is why many government officials often hide under the guise of awarding bogus contracts to embezzle money so that when traced they
can claim the money was used for a legitimate purpose.
3. Orji Kalu could have struck a
deal before defecting from the PDP to the APC
As one of the founding members of
the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the southeast zone, it came as a surprise
when Orji Uzor Kalu suddenly defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in
2016. But the politician who was standing trial for alleged corruption at
the time might have made a political error by defecting to the APC without any
leverage. Probably if Kalu had made a deal with the ruling party to get his trial dropped with a promise to help the APC gather support in the southeast
his current travails might never have occurred.
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