Kalu’s statement on Abia, attack on Igbo, says PDP

The Peoples Democratic Party, on Tuesday, tackled the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, over his Monday declaration that the All Progressives Congress would capture Abia State come 2027.

A video shared on social media by Kalu on Monday captured him saying that as the number six citizen, it was inappropriate for his state to be ruled by the Labour Party.

He vowed that Governor Alex Otti of the Labour Party would be unseated, adding that Otti would be the only and the last LP governor to govern Abia State.

“This will be the last time that a Labour governor will govern Abia State. The next governor of Abia State will be APC. I say this without mincing words,” Kalu said.

He said he had told Otti privately and publicly that an APC governor would take over from him in 2027.

“How it will happen, I don’t know, but I know it will happen,” Kalu said.

But in a statement on Tuesday, the opposition PDP tackled Kalu, accusing him of “turning history upside down by projecting a narrative that is clearly false, and must be debunked on other to set the records straight.”

In the statement signed by the head of its media team, Elder Abraham Amah, the Abia PDP said being the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives did not give Kalu the right to speak for the people of Abia State.

The PDP said it was disturbing that “Mr. Ben Kalu has wrongly appropriated the rights to speak for the good people of Abia State.”

“Being the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the one who represents Bende Federal Constituency does not mean that he has suddenly become the mouthpiece of the people of Abia State or the Igbo nation.

“It is imperative to remind Mr. Kalu that his position as Number 6 in the national order of precedence is not something to boast about because it clearly shows the ignominy with which the APC has treated the Igbo nation. He should be reminded that there are six geopolitical zones in Nigeria, and the fact that the South-East placed 6th, and last position is a clear indication that the APC government at the centre does not regard the Igbo nation highly.”

The PDP said Kalu must be reminded that the Igbo fared better politically when the PDP was in power at the federal level.

 “During the reign of the PDP at the centre, the South-East was better compensated with the position of the Senate President, the third position in the order of national precedence, and none of the five Senate Presidents from the South East ever tried to railroad or corralled the entire Igbo nation to the PDP. Beyond that, the South-East occupied other important positions in the PDP government like the Minister of Finance, Chief of Army Staff, Nigerian Ambassador to the United States and Canada, and other important positions that the APC government has denied the Igbo South-East in its nine-year reign,” the PDP said.

According to the PDP, the Igbo people are Republican in nature, “and nobody tells them what to do, especially when it involves following the bandwagon of a party that has subjected Nigerians, especially the Igbo nation, to untold poverty and hardship.”

The opposition party advised Kalu to “concentrate on doing his job as the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, and should desist from making statements that put the Igbo nation to ridicule.”