Orji Uzor Kalu: 3 mistakes that likely landed former governor in jail

After a 12-year trial, a former governor of Abia

state, Orji Uzor Kalu, was on Thursday, December

5, sentenced to 12 years in prison after being

convicted by the Federal High Court in Lagos over

N7.1bn fraud.

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,

Legit.ng highlights 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

ensures 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. Defecting from the APC to the PDP without a

deal

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.