The Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu, has shared his experience when he was at Kuje prison for six months.
According to a statement on his verified Facebook page on Sunday to mark two years of his ordeal, the lawmaker said his perception of life changed while in prison, saying life is vanity.
Recall that Kalu was convicted by the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on December 5, 2019, and sentenced to 12 years in prison over alleged N7.65 billion misappropriations.
However, Justice Mohammed Liman of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court on June 2, 2020, ordered the former governor’s release, leading to his freedom after six months.
The statement reads in part: “My dear friends and compatriots, I am grateful to God for the six months I spent in Kuje, God knows I fear no one except Him.
“Those who conspired against me wanted me buried at all cost, but like the biblical Job, there is a sense in which God allowed those temporary and tragic events to happen to Job.
“My perception of life changed after the six months of incarceration – life is vanity. I did not just learn a lot of lessons, I became a reformed and better man. I was very impacted by what happened to me. More than ever, I have relearned that kindness and forgiveness are what should rule the world, not wickedness.
“I have since forgiven all the people that were instrumental to my ordeal. I forgive them because they probably did not know what they were doing.
“I recall that on the first night I slept in the prison, I was questioning God. On the third day, God told me He allowed me to be imprisoned for a purpose and for a short time. I vividly recall I was scheduled to be in Wuhan, China on December 9, 2019, but my incarceration halted my journey.”