Governor Orji Kalu's Crime Family Syndicate Need to be Thought a Lesson

By

Usman Yerima

usmanyerima_mantu@yahoo.com

The lawless leaders of Nigeria should not expect the ordinary people to be law abiding citizens when they are the chief law breakers in the country. There was a time when the notorious Governor Orji Kalu sounded off nationally about his Presidential ambition. He barely has a clue about his job requirements and responsibilities in a small state like Abia, yet he had his eyes fixed on the Presidency.

At some point down the road, he fell out with uncle Shege, and later came under the scrutiny of EFCC as did other governors and public servants over the past months.

According to EFCC investigative report on Kalu, three generations of his family have participated in looting Abia state treasury, thereby depriving the Abia state people the kind of stewardship expected of an elected representative. Rather than serve the people's best interest and make socio-economic provisions available so that residents can benefit one way or the other from such programs, Kalu gave his own family members and friends free access to public funds. While they callously enriched themselves, the people of Abia state fell into deeper despair and need. What troubles me and it should also trouble every right thinking Nigerian, is the fact that rather than defend himself and his family over the charges brought against them by the EFCC, Kalu has chosen to assume an antagonistic and confrontational stance. The EFCC has clearly done its investigative work and documented their findings as evidence of corrupt practices by the Governor and his family, but Kalu's idiotic response has been that the EFCC is after him because of his opposition to the scrapped third term bid of President Obasanjo. That is hardly a defence.

The third term spectacle came and went. It was killled by the national assembly and everybody moved on both supporters and opponents of it. The issue now is about corrupt practices, and if there are evidence of violations, regardless of whether or not there is personal vendatta from Obasanjo's camp, Kalu needs to face the consequences of his criminal actions.

Whatever Kalu's personal grudge with President Obasanjo may be, that has nothing to do with his official responsibility to the Abia state people. He not only failed to perform his job as a worthy public servant, but has defrauded the people and stolen from them. That is a crime that he, his family, and other defaulting associates of his need to serve jail terms for.

The EFCC is not Obasanjo. The EFCC is an agency charged with tackling the evil of corruption in Nigeria and that is no easy task. So it is very ingenius when irresponsible rogues like Kalu and others like him discard the noble effort of the EFCC under extremely dificult working circumstance because they want to divert attention away from their crimes. Abia state people should therefore demand that Kalu answer to them on the charges brought against him by the commission.

I am appaled by the recklessness of Kalu crime syndicate in their gun fire exchange with Federal agents of the EFCC when an effort was made to take Kalu's mother into custody. The agents of the EFCC clearly identified themselves and explained what their mission was, yet Mrs. Kalu's guards opened fire on Federal agents. That itself is a very very serious crime. The ignorant Kalu criminal syndicate have offered the excuse that warrants are not served at night. How ridiculous is that? I have never heard of such nonsense in my entire life. In which world does an arrest warrant come with recommended service hours?   I have noticed that the minute Nigerian criminal elements in public office face indictment for their looting and other criminal misconduct, they all suddenly become 'lawyers', and begin quoting strange laws all over the place.

Here is what one lunatic in Kalu's government had to say about the intended arrest of Gov Kalu's mother... "If you have a court order, serve it at the normal time. Courts don’t give orders at midnight," Ekeoma stated. "They should have properly identified themselves, serve the court order, instead of marauding at night, in which case one would be right to brand them as assassins or armed robbers," the Special Adviser added, noting that courts don’t just order people’s arrest, "you sue first, and the person appears in court. When a court order is violated, then you can arrest. And in this case, no violation had occurred. It is simply an act of lawlessness." -(Mr Iyke Ekeoma, Special Adviser to Gov Kalu on Media and Publicity) I wonder which law school this vagabond attended. So let us assume for a minute that law enforcement officers were out patrolling in a community and they happen to stumble on a dangerous or wanted individual with multiple arrest warrants. So to Mr. Ekeoma, the officers should do nothing but allow a felon go free with because it's night time, and hope they'll run into the felon again the next day? See how ridiculous that sounds? The purpose of an arrest warrant is to get a felon off of the streets, and into law enforcement custody where he or she can be processed, charged, and made to appear in court before a judge and enter a plea.

An arrest warrant is not a request by law enforcement to show up in court. It is not supposed to be pleasant. It is not a search warrant either because Mr. Ekeoma is apparently confused or plain stupid going by his ridiculous commentary above. An arrest is issued by the courts when crimes have been committed, and can be served at any point, anywhere, any place, or at any time determined by law enforcement to be best served especially when the individual to be served is a serious flight risk. So when I read comments from fools like Mr Iyke Ekeoma, one begins too see how ignorant these people really are. If someone like a Mr Iyke Ekeoma, who happens to be a 'special adviser' to the governor on media and publicity matters has no understanding of a simple legal and law enforcement process, what the hell does he know? All of these indicted persons should be charged with additional counts of obstruction of justice, interfaring with law enforcement work, endangering law enforcment officers, and resisting arrest. I think it is not enough for EFCC to just back off for the sake of peace. They should ensure that they take charge and arrest Kalu's crime family and the thugs that prevented law enforcement from executing a warrant.

If state governors and other public officers want to avoid the embarrassment of EFCC harrassment, they should take the cue and stop defrauding the citizens of their respective states. They should learn to respect themselve and treat the office they occupy with dignity and honor. They should avoid financial impropriety and be good stewards of the state's resources and finances. When they begin to show such level of responsibility, the EFCC will have nothing to harrass them over.

State governors like Kalu and others are so arrogant and place themselves about everyone else and the law. They loot the entire state's treasury without concern for the common man, woman, and child. They show such reckless indeference because to them, they are answerable to nobody. Ideally, they should be answerable to the people, but because the people appear helpless and show no recourse in the face of the gross financial misconduct of their elected representatives, it emboldens these sadistic governors to do worse. Well, since the people appear helpless, the EFCC has assumed the job of checking their excesses. Rather than take responsibility, Kalu and his family are spoiling for a fight. This is how degenerate these people are. In the case of my brothers in Zamfara, I am not as critical of them as I used to be. The law makers and some cabinet members in Gov Sanni Yerima's government are not out there taunting and challenging the EFCC. They are aware of their financial crimes and the consequence that await them when indicted. So they simply abscond the premises on foot like seasoned sprinters whenever EFCC personnel show up to arrest them. They are not there quoting strange laws, and engaging EFCC in gun battles and war of words. They simply run away like athletes training for the sports festival. This is far more honorable than what Kalu's crime family did to EFCC personnel.