Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu said Nigerians thought he was into money rituals because of a beautiful and expensive car he owned in 1982.
On Facebook, Kalu posted on Saturday that the car was the “latest Mercedes Benz,” withholding more details about the car.
“The then President Shehu Shagari was the only Nigerian using the same car as at that time,” Kalu boasted. “I recall that whenever I drove the car, some would look at it with admiration while a few were spreading rumors that I was into money rituals.”
Kalu asked Nigerians to “stop entertaining the blackmails” that money was his motivation for entering politics.
“If it’s actually about money as propagated, then I already have all I would ever need,” he said.
“While I was governor, I never bought a new home. I have lost more money being into politics. I took over from a military administrator and those who knew the condition of Abia before 1999 will have a better understanding of the level of work we did before leaving government in 2007.
“As of today, I can decide to even resign as a senator because I spend my private money to make up a lot of things while serving the people.
“Nigeria is unfortunately a country where people who have done no business except holding public office are hailed while those who have worked hard all their lives creating wealth and employing people are called names.”
Kalu stated, like he has always done at any given opportunity, that he bankrolled the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 1998 with N500 million and also gave then PDP presidential candidate, Olusegun Obasanjo, N100 million.
“I became an employer of labour at an early age and have steadily continued to be.
“I have worked hard all my life and the best you can do is to study people and try to be better than them. For the life we live is not for ourselves alone but for God and to then accommodate other people,” he added.
The former Abia State governor who now represents Abia North in the Nigerian Senate, posted alongside his comment a photo of himself and another man standing in front of a house.
“Seeing off my childhood friend, Chief Emeka Eboh after I hosted him for lunch at my residence, Camp Neso, Potomac, USA,” Kalu said in the post.
He loves bragging about how wealthy he was before joining Nigerian politics.
Kalu, who has been accused of mismanaging billions of naira belonging to Abia State, was convicted of N7.65 billion fraud in 2019 and sent to prison. The conviction was quashed on appeal by the Supreme Court which ordered a fresh trial.
In an AriseTV interview in January, when Kalu was asked about the trial, he replied that he was too wealthy to suddenly become a thief in Nigeria.
“Everybody, even you Reuben (Abati), you know me pre-1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, you know I bankrolled everything, all the money politicians paid during that period, you know I was the one who brought the money in the PDP. So, how can I become a thief suddenly?” he said.
Kalu said the fraud story against him was a creation of the media.
He refused to let his interviewers press him further on the fraud matter.
“I am not supposed to talk about matters in court,” he said.
