Kalu to return to PDP

By Henry Umoru

  ABUJA— BARING any last minute change of mind, the former governor of Abia State and the Presidential candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, Chief Orji Kalu, has concluded arrangements to return to his ex-party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP next week.

It was gathered that Kalu, who is the Chairman, Board of Trustees, BoT, PPA, had during the fight for who replaces former National Chairman of PDP, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, promised the new National Chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo, that he would dump the PPA and return to his party once he emerged the chairman of the party.

The source said further that Kalu wants to align with the South East governors who had on Monday during the reception for Nwodo, stormed the event to show solidarity irrespective of party affiliation.

While the Anambra State governor, Peter Obi ,will remain in the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, the case of Theodore Orji, the Abia State governor is not quite clear on whether he will finally decamp to PDP, but that of Orji Kalu is clear as he is prepared to bounce back to PDP.

Against the backdrop that nobody from the zone would aspire to be President or Vice President in 2011, the source said “as you may be aware, Kalu is the only person that would have flouted that decision but early this morning he reached out to the National Chairman to say that he is ready to fulfill the promise he made to return to the PDP if Nwodo emerges the National Chairman of the party.

“I can tell you that Kalu would be at the National Secretariat of the PDP next week possibly on Monday to formally declare his intention to return.”

It would be recalled that Kalu left the PDP in 2006 to form the PPA after a long running irreconciliable differences with former President Olusegun Obasanjo.