By Joseph Erunke, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party, in Abia North said it has been vindicated by  a statement from the office of the Accountant General of the Federation which put N137 billion as total payment from federation account to Abia during the tenure of the former Governor Orji Kalu.

The party said the disclosure was contrary to Kalu’s claim that his administration never received up to N7 billion from the federation account.

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The Abia zonal party chairman who is also the immediate chairman of Arochukwu Local Government Area of the state, Chief Ameh Abraham,in a statement, Sunday,in Abuja, said the submission of the AGF has vindicated the party which had earlier dismissed the claim by the former governor that the state has no such money while he was in office .

“The former had earlier told a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, that Abia State during his eight years in office never earned as much as N7.6 billion, saying he could not have stolen from non existing money.

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” But the office of the Account General of the Federation in a submission through the EFCC before the court said the state indeed got a total of N137billion for the period under review,”he said in the statement.

He said the party commended the judiciary for not only insisting that Kalu stands trial in the case brought against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission but fixing date for judgement.

“We are happy that the judge, Mohammed Idris, fixed the date for judgement in the 12-year-old case.

Recall that Kalu has been standing trial in the case alongside his company, Slok Nigeria Limited; and Udeh Udeogu, who was Director of Finance and Accounts at the Abia State Government House during Mr Kalu’s tenure as governor of Abia State.

Vanguard News