By Henry Umoru

ABUJA —  PLAN by former Abia State governor, Chief Orji Kalu, to return to the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, this week suffered a major set back yesterday, this time, a total rejection by his Bende local government chapter of the party.

According to the chapter, the news of his return to the PDP which he dumped to form the Progressive Peoples Alliance, PPA, was even strange to his Igbere ward and the Bende Local Government Area of the state, just as it said he must not come back through the backdoor.

In a statement signed by Chairman of the party in the local government, Engr. Ekekwe E. Ejiagba, entitled: “Orji Uzor Kalu’s purported return to PDP: Disclaimer,” noted that the news read in the pages of newspapers was an “utter embarrassment.”

The statement read in part: “We read with utter embarrassment some newspaper reports on the purported return of Chief Orji Uzor Kalu to the PDP in Igbere, Bende Local Government Area of Abia State.

“We want to make it abundantly clear that the PDP, after the last congress, elected functionaries recognised by the party in every ward and local government, including Bende L.G.A where Orji Kalu hails from.

“The PDP is a disciplined, stable and organised party governed by the rule of law, its constitution and due process. We will not fold our hands and allow Orji Kalu an undeserved respite after destroying the fortunes of Abia State and infecting his own Progressive People’s Alliance, PPA, with the nuisance, confusion and destruction that have become his trademark.

“The fact that he convened a personal meeting of discredited, motley crowed of remnants of his shattered PPA in his private residence at Igbere does not mean he has returned to the PDP which constitution clearly stipulates the method by which a decampee like Orji Kalu may return to its fold.”