Kalu

The Ekiti government on Saturday asked former governor Orji Uzor Kalu to stop his proposed peace advocacy visit to the state.

Kalu has been going around the south-west on a supposedly peace, fairness and unity tour, but he has also been campaigning for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a statement issued on Saturday, Lere Olayinka, spokesman of governor Ayo Fayose, said Kalu who is also the chairman of the advisory board for the national movement for the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari is not needed in Ekiti.

The former governor of Abia state was therefore advised to “take his advocacy for peace to other parts of the country where security of lives and properties of Nigerians is under threat”.

“There is no threat to peace and unity of Nigeria from Ekiti state for anyone, including Orji Kalu to address. Therefore, he should not expect to be welcomed to any palace in Ekiti state.

“It is an insult on the collective sensibilities of Ekiti people, whose only benefit from the government of President Buhari is hardship occasioned by the government’s cluelessness for anyone to hide under advocacy for peace to canvass support for the President.”

Ekiti state government  said Kalu’s campaign for Buhari was an “image laundering” job to hel him evade his ongoing trial for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

“If he has sold his own conscience to the agenda of selling an already rejected product to Nigerians, we in Ekiti state have not, and we are telling him categorically that such advocacy is not welcome in our state.

“He should rather take his peace and unity advocacy to his own state, where he is already rejected and other states where Nigerians are being killed on daily basis by armed bandits.

“It is also ridiculous that instead of joining Nigerians to tell the president the truth about the state of affairs in the country, Kalu is castigating Nigerians that have summoned courage to speak out against the president through letters and public comments.”