Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu, has sparked outrage in his home state of Abia following his declaration that Alex Otti would be unseated in 2027 by whatever means.
Kalu in a video footage of his media interview had declared that Otti would be the last Labour Party governor in Abia. He boasted that as Nigeria’s number six citizen, he would not sit by and allow an opposition party to control Abia.
The Deputy Speaker further stated that Abia must be taken over by his own party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), though he confessed that “I don’t know how it will happen”.
But while his comments have set off the alarm bell in Abia, a fellow member of the House of Representatives from Abia, Hon. Obi Aguocha, has fired a salvo at Kalu, saying that his comments smacked of arrogance and power drunkenness.
Aguocha, who represents Ikwuano/Umuahia North/Umuahia South federal constituency, in a statement Monday told the Deputy House Speaker to perish the thought of unseating Otti come 2027.
As a federal lawmaker on Labour Party platform, Aguocha said he was shocked by Kanu’s “open declaration of Abia State becoming an APC state in 2027”, upbraiding him for displaying indiscretion in his “quest for national political relevance.”
“My dear colleague, your open vituperation and remarks against our governor, LabourParty, and Abia State was very condescending, denigrating, and disrespectful in every sense of the word,” he told Kalu.
The LP lawmaker reminded Kalu that his “patently repeated boasting and referring to yourself as No.6 in the order of leadership hierarchy of the federal government portrays you less as a leader and more like a man with an open display of brazenness and rabid indiscretion”.
“My brother, we are distinguished colleagues with you representing the good people of Bende Federal Constituency. Whilst we elected you to be our Deputy Speaker, it does not confer on you an audacity to declare vacant the seat of the governor of AbiaState in 2027,” Aguocha stated.
He warned Kalu to tread cautiously, saying that the Bende Federal Constituency seat being occupied by him is indeed very shaky hence he might not return to the National Assembly in 2027.
According to Aguocha, it was LP that actually won the 2023 poll in Bende Federal Constituency, insinuating the result was manipulated in favour of the APC and its candidate, Kalu.
“We can also be brazen enough to declare that seat vacant again,” Aguocha told the Deputy Speaker.
He insisted that as far as Abia State is concerned, “there is no vacancy” in government house come 2027 even if Kalu, as of his own right, is nursing his ambition of becoming governor.
Aguocha, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Monitoring and Evaluation of All Standing and Ad-Hoc Committees of the 10th House of Representatives, said that Abians would not bid Otti good bye in 2027 after completing his first term in office.
According to him, Otti’s emergence as governor “is the first time Abia has awakened to great leadership and governance strides in almost 24 years”, adding that anybody thinking of displacing him in 2027 is daydreaming.
The LP federal lawmaker pointed out that Kalu had even contradicted himself having admitted that Governor Otti is doing well for Abia people and then turning around to say that he would be ousted in 2027.
He said that it amounted to “a brazen and uncontrolled outpouring of emotional fury” for Kalu to declare that he was duty bound to deliver Abia to APC and President Bola Tinubu as a payback for favours he received from them.
“But I assure you that as you want Abians to repay Tinubu for his good works, so shall Abians repay Alex Otti for his mammoth achievements come 2027. Alex Otti will be reelected governor of Abia State,” Aguocha stated.
Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo
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