By Saidu Idris
365Daily – Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, former Governor of Abia State, is being dragged on social media over an alleged failed Christmas giveaway.
Many of his followers called him out on Facebook, accusing him of dishonesty on his verified page for allegedly failing to keep his promise of crediting bank accounts of 300 of them with “small token for Christmas” last Saturday.
A Facebook user, Kingsley Emefre, who opened the floodgate of query against the politician, wrote: “You have done well able Senator…
But I am yet to see anyone congratulate you on the Xmas bonus you promised which I even participated in as your fan.”
Another, Kingsley Emefre, said, “Nwanne… promise and fail is a sin…
“Guy send me my alert, after successfully writing ur name 3 times without interruption. I won’t keep quiet till u send me my money.”
Yet another wrote, “OUK, OUK, OUK, how many times did I call you? You’ve come again? Please show us the proof that anyone benefited, otherwise, it’s just audio political money.”
Kalu had posted the previous day, Friday, December 3, 2021: “In the spirit of the season and in response to some of your comments, the first phase of Christmas giveaway will kick off tomorrow. There will be 300 beneficiaries of little token each. To make it easier in selecting the beneficiaries, a little task will be required. When you succeed , please attach your account number and you will be credited immediately. It will kick off at 11am tomorrow.”
On the D-Day, Senator Kalu again announced: “It is 11 am and we shall begin. As I said earlier, this token has no relationship with my Constituency project. It is a simple way of wishing as many people as possible merry Christmas. Some may need it others may not need it. If you want to know my performance as the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial zone, please ask anyone from my zone I have performed beyond many people’s expectations of a Senator. As an elected senator, I have done excellently well for Abia North.
“To be a beneficiary of this Giveaway :
“Kindly type the name of the Senator representing Abia North Senatorial zone. If you succeed in repeating the name three times with no interruption from another person , you can then attach your preferred account details and you will be credited immediately. Please note that the names must not be in a single comment but three different comments. Happy weekend and victory for Enyimba.”
Over 50,000 people participated but going by comments by many of his followers, it appears there was no evidence of any visible beneficiary.
This led to complaints by a good number of the participants, who concluded that the Senator only fooled them with an “audio Christmas giveaway” exercise.
One of the participants even pleaded that anyone who had received alert from Kalu should come forward, but nobody did.
“Whoever receives should please let’s know to prove the credibility and integrity of our great Senator,” wrote a Facebook user, Prince olalekan.
“I am still Waaiting for credit alert or is there selective fulfillment of promise?” responded one Afunwa Mbamalu!
But responding to this public outrage on his page, on the night of Monday, December 6, 2021, Senator Kalu promised to make amends next weekend, as he claimed he was overwhelmed by the number of participants, which according to him, made the selection process very difficult.
He wrote: “It has become important and necessary that I comment on the Saturday Giveaway. As you all could recall, the targeted number was 300 and it was meant to be a playful exercise. I didn’t expect everyone to be credited as 300 became almost invisible . I must therefore admit that selecting the beneficiaries overlmed me.
“The comments were about 50,000 and I even lost the trace of some comments I tried working on. Several people that were credited acknowledged while others did not; probably it’s their style and differences.
“Meanwhile, If you weren’t lucky last Saturday , you could be this coming Saturday. We shall also increase the number of beneficiaries. Please consider this as a playful exercise and as a Christmas token for coke not empowerment.”