Senate President Ahmad Lawan has explained why Orji Uzor Kalu’s seat was not declared vacant while he was in prison.
The Senate Chief Whip was convicted and sentenced last December for embezzling N7.1 billion of state funds while he was the Governor of Abia State.
The Senate President said; “He (Kalu) was on several appeals and until he exhausted all the opportunities available to him, that seat remained his seat. Similarly the position of the Chief Whip, we didn’t even appoint an acting Chief Whip. The Deputy Chief Whip continued to play that role until he was released. We came under pressure, of course. But we thought the right thing to do was to keep that seat, that position until he was able to get his judgement. It would have been premature, unjust and unfair to declare his seat vacant or his position to be given away because he was in that situation. So we didn’t do anything extraordinary really. We did what was right, what was just, what was necessary.”