Former Governor of Abia State and founding member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has dissociated himself from what he described as “the flood of deceptive, mischievous and malicious posters adorning Umuahia and other major cities in the state purporting his senate candidacy and presidential aspiration on the platform of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA).”

In a statement issued yesterday by his media adviser, Mr. Ebere Wabara, Dr. Kalu described the pasting of the posters as “childish ploys” and “the evil machinations of floundering detractors who will stop at nothing to discredit” him and put him at loggerheads with foundational like-minds in the PDP.

“Only gullible sections of the public and latter-day members of the PDP can be misled on where I stand in terms of party membership, loyalty and my political convictions,” Kalu said, adding: “The people who matter in our party know full well where I belong and my standpoint on national politics.

“I strongly believe in President Goodluck Jonathan’s robust and enduring transformation agenda and holistically subscribe to the profound implementation of the blueprint to the letter. No amount of scurrilous blackmail from any oppositional quarter can dissuade me or tarnish my image in the eyes of right-thinking people in the PDP.”

The former governor further asserted that even non-members of the PDP and most Nigerians know that he is unflinchingly committed to the party. He implored “the clownish poster jesters to be meaningfully and gainfully engaged instead of dissipating their energy on worthless adventurism and duplicitous ventures.”

The statement recalled that “last year, too, these same poster mercantilists and character assassins marooned Abia State with all manner of posters, handbills and billboards associating Dr. Kalu with vacuous political prospects and hare-brained potentialities ahead of 2015.”

•Photo shows Orji Uzor Kalu.