The group in a statement signed by its Coordinator, Igboeli Arinze and its secretary, Cletus Anosike, said that several elements were making attempts to truncate the opportunity of the South-East from producing the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 10th National Assembly.
A South-East group, the Igbo Mandate Movement Group (IMMG) has alleged that some politicians are sponsoring campaigns against the speakership ambition of the spokesperson of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu.
The group in a statement signed by its Coordinator, Igboeli Arinze and its secretary, Cletus Anosike, said that several elements were making attempts to truncate the opportunity of the South-East from producing the Speaker of the House of Representatives in the 10th National Assembly.
The group condemned the recent press release by what it called “a faceless and unregistered coalition” of Northern Patriots Front, South West Professionals and Coalition of Arewa Group on emerging issues of the leadership of the 10th National Assembly.
According to IMMG, the coalition accused Kalu who is representing Bende federal constituency, Abia State, of betraying the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2023 general elections and therefore was not to be rewarded with the position of speaker.
But the Igbo group stated that “Some of the issues allegedly raised by this pseudo coalition is an obvious affront on the person of Honorable Benjamin Okezie Kalu, Spokesperson of the 9th Assembly and our sole candidate for the Office of Speaker in the 10th Assembly.”
The Coordinator of the IMMG, Arinze stated that the coalition “in its futile bid to misinform the general public and cast aspersions on the Integrity of the Honourable Benjamin Kalu did allege that the likes of Kalu betrayed the party in the course of the run-up to the elections, thus like a Kangaroo court also gave a judgement asking that Kalu shouldn’t be allowed to lead the House of Representatives as the Speaker.
“Let it be on the records that no sitting legislator in the South-East nor those who aspired to represent their constituencies in either chambers of the National Assembly did as much as Benjamin Kalu in the runoff to the elections.”
He noted that “While a number of candidates campaigned with the sly slogan “Vote for me for Senate and vote for whosoever you like as President” Benjamin Kalu was known to have started and ended all his campaigns with “Vote for me for Rep and vote for Bola Ahmed Tinubu as President” the evidence is there that even in places deemed as hostile territories and audiences alike, Benjamin Kalu never shirked from campaigning for Tinubu not even when threatened by hired assassins who were sent to silence him for projecting the APC Presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“Again, while other leaders shied away from receiving our President-Elect when he came to Abia State, Benjamin Kalu was one of the few leaders from Abia who welcomed the President-Elect and drove with him to the Umuahia Township Stadium where the President-Elect met with party faithful.”
IMMG recalled that “Kalu, 45 days to the election day, granted an interview projecting the Presidential candidate Sen. Bola Ahmed Tinubu as likely to win the 2023 general elections and maintained such stance despite the backlash from certain quarters in the Southeastern region.