Business mogul and former Abia state governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, lived up to his vow to ensure a second term mandate for President Muhammadu Buhari, as he mobilized 45,000 votes in Bende LGA in the presidential primary in the state.
The Sun reports that the state returning officer, Prof. Chris Nwanmuo of the University of Calabar, who announced that President Buhari polled 455,656 votes in the state, said Bende council of Chief Kalu accounted for the highest votes among all the LGAs.
We gathered that other results are: Aba north 20522, Aba south , 2,970, Arochukwu 40,671, Bende 45,000, Ikwuano, 33,348, Isialangwa north, 25,271, Isialangwa south, 28,835, Isuikwuato, 35,261 and Obingwa, 19,029.
In Ohafia, Buhari polled 31,208, 21,521 in Osisioma Ngwa, Ugwunagbo 16,109 and Ukwa east, 14,845.
Buhari also got 15, 303 votes won in Ukwa west, Umuahia north, 29,367 votes, Umuahia South, 27, 608 votes and, Umunneochi, 34,311 votes.
Meanwhile, the party has refuted allegation by a section of the social media that the name of Dr. Uzor Kalu and other party members were not in the party register.
An aspirant of the party for Bende federal constituency, Chief Ben Kalu had during the party’s caucus meeting in Umuahia at the weekend, drew attention of the party leadership to a fake party register circulating in the area ahead of the primaries, which he said did not contain the names of many prominent members of the party in the area including that of Kalu.
He called for the return of the authentic register.
But reacting to the reports state party publicity secretary, Godson Benedict laughed off the news, wondering how the names of the leader of the party in the state will be missing in the party’s register.
Godson insisted that it was “a misinformation as such a statement did not emanate from the party. The party is best placed to tell whose names are in the party register and whose names are not.
He insisted that, “Orji Kalu was one of the first aspirants in the state that was screened and cleared for the primaries, so, if his name was not in the register, he wouldn’t have been so screened and cleared.”
Also reacting to the news, Chief Ben kalu said he was quoted out of context, stressing that what he said was just to draw the attention of the party leadership to the fake register which do not contain the names of so many members of the party in the area and that also reduced the Bende Federal constituency political wards from 13 to 10.
“What I did at the meeting was just to draw the attention of the party leadership to a register that was full of typographical errors which omitted the names of many of our members and reduced our political wards from 13 to 10.
“For example, in Igbere Ward 1 where the leader of the party comes from, of over 12, 000 members that are in the original register, only four members are in the fake one and that was why I said it should be withdrawn and the original register brought for the primaries.”
Kalu further stated that it was out of place for Bende federal constituency that has over 500,000 registered members, which he said was made manifest with the entry of the former governor of Abia state into APC, to have less than 1,000 members as contained in the fake register and called on the leadership of the party to make available the original register for the purposes of the primaries.
Meanwhile, we had previously reported that three from the seven gubernatorial aspirants have stepped down before the commencement of the PDP primaries in Benue. The aspirants, Dave Iorhembe, Gabriel Nyitse and Joe Iorapuu, all accepted to step aside in the interest of the party.
