A pan-Igbo group, Njiko Igbo, has faulted Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Benjamin Kalu over his recent declaration that Abia State Governor Alex Otti cannot win re-election on the platform of the Labour Party, LP.
President of Njiko Igbo, Reverend Okechukwu Obioha, said in an interview with THE WHISTLER that the people of Abia State will decide what happens in the 2027 election, when Otti is expected to seek a second term in office as governor.
Kalu, who represents Bende Federal Constituency under the All Progressives Congress, had in an interview declared that the APC will produce the next governor of Abia State.
“This will be the last time that a Labour Party governor will govern Abia State. I say it without mincing words. The next governor of Abia State will be APC governor,” Kalu declared, adding that he had already expressed his views to the Abia governor.
“We are friends, we work together, but I will not be the number six citizen of the country and another party will govern my state. The next election in 2027, APC will be there.
“I have told him publicly and privately that the APC governor will be next in Abia state. How it will happen, I don’t know, but it will happen.”
Kalu’s statement is seen as an invitation to Otti, who is enjoying enormous goodwill in Abia State due to his developmental strides, to rejoin the ruling APC.
However, speaking with THE WHISTLER, President of Njiko Igbo, Obioha said Kalu is not the one to decide for Abians.
“The electorate in Abia State elected Alex Otti. They voted overwhelmingly for him. So for somebody to be saying that Alex Otti will not get a second term unless he goes to APC is non-issue.
“The people of Abia State did not vote in the last election according to political party lines – they voted based on the phenomenon of Peter Obi and his character.
“As far as Igbo interests are concerned, Ben Kalu is not in a position to tell us what to do, or how to vote, or what is going to happen here (South-East). He might be the number 6 man in the nation but that’s at the national level,” Obioha said.
The Igbo leader noted that Otti has so far performed more than other governors.
But he added that it is too early to talk of second term or the 2027 election.
“Alex Otti is working beyond what other governors have done. But it is too early to talk about second term – until about three years in office that is when we can assess and say there is no vacancy in the Government House. There will be an appraisal of his scorecard.
“People like us are saying when it gets to the time of reckoning, Abia people should be the ones to decide.”
Obioha, in the same vein, frowned at Deputy Speaker, Ben Kalu’s role in the 2023 presidential election, when he openly supported APC candidate Bola Tinubu, against Peter Obi of the Labour Party, despite the clamour for the South-East to produce the President.
He said, “Ben Kalu’s vituperations is neither here nor there. He did well in his first term in the House of Representatives, particularly in Bende LGA, where he came from. He did what previous PDP House of Representatives members never did by reaching out to people and bringing development.
“But when we talk about equity and justice, we should note that in the build up to the 2023 election, when we were saying that it is the turn of the South-East to produce the President, Ben Kalu went and aligned with Tinubu, thereby helping to deny Ndigbo the opportunity to produce the President. That is where he shifted – that action was an aberration – I don’t know whether they baptized him or not.
“So we in Njiko Igbo see his comments on the Abia State governor as being in line with the spirit of grabbing power and running away with it. He wants to grab the governorship in Abia State – that’s why he is making that type of statement now.”
‘Abia Voters Will Decide’ – Igbo Group Tackles DSP Kalu Over Anti-Otti Comments is first published on The Whistler Newspaper