Former Governor of Abia state, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, has revealed how he gave former President Olusegun Obasanjo N100 million when he left prison in 1998 to fund his presidential campaign.
This revelation comes less than 24 hours after the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party for the 2019 election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said he donated N50 million to Obasanjo’s library.
Kalu, who is facing corruption trial in defence before the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, added that he provided N5 million that was used to register the PDP in 1998, saying if the PDP were a company, he will own 90 per cent.
Speaking on the fact that he was already a self-made man before he dabbled into politics, he said: “Before I became governor, we were forming PDP in my house in Maryland (USA).
“If PDP were a company, I will own 90 per cent.
“The N5 million that was used to register PDP in 1998 was provided by me.
“I provided the majority of the money used in running PDP.
“When Obasanjo came out of prison, I gave him N100 million to fund his campaign.”
Kalu, who gave the explanation on why he dabbled into politics from business, also said he ran Abia State with his personal funds in the first six months of his governorship.
He said: “When I came in as governor, there was no money to buy diesel in Government House.
“I used my money to run the state in the first six months.
“As at June 1999, the monthly allocation to Abia State was averaging between N168 and N172 million.”
Kalu told the court that the highest allocations the state got while he was in office were from November 2004.
He said: “The highest I got as governor came November 2004 when we got N1 billion.
“From then till May 2007, what we had was N1.6 billion.
“That was the highest we got during my time as governor and I never owed salaries or pensions.”
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