“Orji Uzor Kalu should be rotting in jail” – Aisha Yesufu

Popular socio-political activist, Aisha Yesufu, on Wednesday said the Senate Chief Whip, Orji Uzor Kalu, “should be rotting in jail” instead of seeking to become Nigeria’s next Senate President.

POLITICS NIGERIA had reported last Tuesday that Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, said it is his turn to be the Senate President of Nigeria.

Speaking to newsmen in Abuja at the time, Kalu imitated the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, by saying “it is my turn”.

On Tuesday, he met with President Buhari, presented his certificate of return to the Nigerian leader, and informed him about his ambition to become the Senate President in the 10th National Assembly which will be inaugurated in June.

“Character cannot be in the same breadth or sentence as Orji Uzor Kalu. Somebody that should be in jail, 12 years. If not for Supreme Court coming to tell us about technicalities and what have you,” Yesufu said in a video posted on her official YouTube page.

This newspaper recalls that in an unexpected turn in 2020, the Supreme Court nullified the 12-year jail term conviction of Kalu.

Kalu and two others were tried on 36-count of money laundering to the tune of N7.1 billion.

Mohammad Idris, the presiding judge, had on December 5, 2019 sentenced Kalu to 12 years in prison.

But the seven-man panel of justices at the apex court held that the judgment of the trial court is a nullity on grounds that Idris (the trial judge) lacked the jurisdiction to hear the case.

The apex court held that Idris who had been elevated to the court of appeal as at the time of judgment lacked powers to preside over a matter at the federal high court.