Abia politics: I was made to swear on oath by Orji Kalu’s brother – Abaribe

The Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe, said he was taken to a shrine to swear an oath of loyalty 24 hours before inauguration as deputy governor in 1999.

Abaribe was deputy governor to Senator Orji Uzor Kalu from May 29, 1999 till March 2003 before he resigned and defected to the defunct All Nigerian People’s Party.

Abaribe stated this in his new book, ‘Made in Aba’ which was launched in Abuja on Monday.

He explained that the former Aba North Local Government Area Chairman, one Chief Duru, and Kalu’s younger brother, Uzor, took him to “a so-called prophet” on School Road, Aba, in Abia State.

He said, “On the matter of loyalty by ordeal, whereby people were made to swear allegiance on all sorts of objects, my experience was that some people around Kalu took it upon themselves to engage in invidious activities, purporting to be directed by him.

“In my case, on the night before swearing into office, the then Aba North Local Government  Chairman  informed me that Kalu’s people were not comfortable with me as I had not sworn to anything.

“Here I was, being lectured, nay, more like being intimidated with verses from the Bible, hinging the act on notion like ‘you people will be my people…’ and the like. Was that Bible not what I stood on to insist I was a Christian?

“What big secret mission were we embarking on that required that much effort to ensure loyalty? Loyalty to what?  Were we not to swear loyalty to the people rather than to the person of the Governor? Yes, I was that much of a greenhorn in politics!” Punch