By Adesina Soyooye
The home support base of Orji Uzor Kalu, Senate Chief Whip, has dwindled. His younger brother, Mascot, has suddenly dumped the All Progressives Congress, APC, and formed a new Political Party, Action Peoples Party.
It is not known why Mascot, the 2019 defeated APC candidate for the House of Representatives, and a one-time Chief of Staff to a former Governor of the State, Senator Theodore Orji, dumped the APC where the brother, Senator Kalu is the leader in their Abia State.
Senator Kalu has expressed shock at the development. He said his brother, Mascot, neither gave him any inkling that he was dumping APC, not does he know the reason why he did that.
In a statement on his official Facebook page, Senator Kalu said, “I have received several calls from friends, associates, political stakeholders and leaders of thought seeking my opinion on the defection of my brother, Mascot, from the APC to Action Peoples Party, APP.
“Sincerely, the National Chairman, two Deputy National Chairmen of our great party, including the Senate President, persuaded him to remain with the APC but he declined.
“I was surprised to hear that he, alongside other stakeholders, launched the new party, Action Peoples Party, APP, yesterday,(Wednesday), in Umuahia without informing me.
“Well, I don’t have any issue with my brother; he has the right to take a decision on his political future, and, as a democrat, I acknowledge his right to determine his political affiliation and wishes him well.”
“I remain the Chief Whip of the Senate and a committed member of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
“I am even more determined to serve my people and facilitate more dividends of democracy to them.”
However, not a few people say they do not believe Senator Kalu that he is ignorant of his brother’s new move. Some allege that he might even be behind the new party. They pointed out that he did the same thing when he was Abia State Governor.
As the Abia State Governor under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, during his second term in office, he founded and funded a new Party, PPA, as his Plan B following his misunderstanding with President Olusegun Obasanjo.
He followed that up by sponsoring two Governorship candidates in Imo and Anambra State, Ikedi Ohakim and Theodore Orji. Both men won the Governorship for Imo and Anambra States, respectively, in 2007. Sadly for him, the two Governors later dumped PPA for the PDP, over what they alleged was Kalu’s suffocating control.
Is the same PPA scenario about to play out? Time will tell.
