PDP chieftain kicks as Kalu, Umahi set to return to party 

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP,) in Abia State, Dr Isaac Nkole, has warned the party against re-admitting Senator Orji Uzor Kalu into the ‘big umbrella’.

Nkole, who gave the warning in a media chat in Umuahia, claimed that the former Governor “is in a desperate move to return to the PDP having discovered that his days in the All Progressive Congress APC are numbered”.

He also claimed that Gov David Umahi of Ebonyi State is allegedly making contacts to return to the PDP having discovered he was deceived into APC.

According to Dr Nkole, the Senate Chief Whip has been reaching out to key stakeholders in PDP both in the state and the national levels, begging them to allow him to return to the party.

But Dr. Nkole who described Kalu as a “spoiler and political liability”, argued that the former governor’s return to PDP “is not in the best interest of the party.”

His words: “I want to advise the leadership of PDP both in Abia and national to be careful not to allow Senator Orji Uzor Kalu return to our great party because his return will destroy PDP.

“I’m raising this alarm because we heard that he is making contacts with the party big wigs begging for the door to be opened for him to come back.

“He knows he is already at the end of the road in APC as the party’s structure is off his grip. His political fate is sealed because his faction of the party is not the one recognised by Abuja.

“Knowing the implications for him and others in 2023, that’s why he’s making desperate efforts to return to PDP but we don’t need people like him to infest our part.”

According to Nkole, Senator Kalu is not the only APC chieftain from the South- East itching to return to the PDP.

“We heard that Gov. Dave Umahi also wants to return to PDP. They have all discovered that they made the wrong decision by joining APC in the first place. That’s why they all want to return but PDP is tired of political liabilities and desperados without ideology.”

Senator Kalu was elected Abia governor in 1999 on the platform of the PDP but left the party to form the Progressive People’s Alliance (PPA), at the peak of his political war with former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2006.

He later dumped PPA but his attempt to return to the PDP in 2014 was vigorously resisted by his erstwhile political ally and successor, Senator Theodore Orji.

He later defected to APC before the 2015 election when he contested for the Abia North Senatorial seat but lost to Senator Mao Ohuabunwa of the PDP.

Kalu, however, re-contested in 2019 when he eventually was declared winner of the contest.