Kalu remains Abia North senator-Bourdex

A member of Board of Trustees (BoT) of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Abia State, Chief (Dr.) David Onuoha Bourdex, has said that it would be presumptuous and prejudicial to declare the Abia North Senatorial seat occupied by Senator Orji Uzor Kalu vacant.

Bourdex, who was also the APGA candidate for Abia North Senatorial seat in the 2019 general elections, enjoined ambitious politicians to avoid making moves that could undermine the electoral preferences of the electorate.

He said that although the present occupant of the seat is facing some challenges, the wishes of the electorate that voted for him should be respected.

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos had last year sentenced, the incumbent Senate Majority Whip, Senator Kalu to 12 years imprisonment for diverting the sum of N7.2billion while in office as governor of Abia State.

But, speaking with reporters in Abuja against the backdrop of the recent re-run election in the state, in which his party beat two candidates of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the APGA chieftain said the outcome of the election confirmed that PDP did not win the February 28, 2019 National Assembly election.

He said: “If after the court ordered a re-run in those crucial state constituencies the PDP candidates still lost, that shows you that PDP did not actually win during last year’s general elections.

“You should also remember that APGA went into a mutual understanding with the All Progressives Congress (APC), which led to the massive votes cast for President Muhammadu Buhari on March 28, 2019.

 So, the outcome of last Saturday’s by-election speaks volumes about voter preferences in Abia State during the main election.”

The former APGA candidate disclosed that he reflected on those realities before congratulating the APC candidate, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, stressing that nothing will shake his belief that public service should not be do-or-die or out of desperation.

On the calls by some interest groups on the National Assembly to declare the Abia North Senatorial seat vacant, Bourdex contended that, since Senator Kalu has appealed against his conviction, “it is preposterous and presumptuous to make such a demand.”

He said that after the Election Petition Tribunal and Court of Appeal ruled on the outcome of the March 28, 2019 Abia North Senatorial election, those urging the National Assembly to declare the seat vacant are manifesting symptoms of desperation and overzealousness to join the Senate through the backdoor.

“Granted that the wheel of justice grinds slowly and surely, those of us in politics should strive to follow the rule of law without doing anything to circumvent the process.

We should stand for fairness; and patience is necessary to ensure that justice is done both for the state and citizens and society at large, Bourdex added.

The Nation