The Deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu has debunked a report making its rounds on social media, stating that the leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the South East are not at home with the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s choice of ministerial nominees from the zone.
The Office of the Deputy Speaker in a release said;”The report published by 247ureports.com with the sordid and puerile aim of hoodwinking the unsuspecting members of the public however did not name the so-called leaders.
“Ordinarily, such a report should not be dignified with a rebuttal as it is not worth anyone’s time. But for purposes of clarity and emphasis, moreso, to protect the sanity of the reading public, the office of the deputy speaker is hereby emphatically stating the report is not only a deluge of garbages, unfounded narratives and falsehood at its apogee but also the figment of the overheated imagination of the people and the medium that published it.
“For starters, masking the so-called leaders puts paid to the fickleness of the report. It’s also unfathomable that the discredited online medium could not live up to the simple journalistic ethos of lending credence to their own report by crediting such a serious publication to identifiable names and faces. Taking to such uncanny fabrication so unabashedly made can only be seen and regarded as a hatchet job which runs at variance with the professional ethics of journalism.
“We hold the profession in high esteem and would therefore appeal that those who intend to cast aspersions on its nobler intentions be held accountable by the relevant authorities and hierarchies.
“We pontificate here that the APC leaders in the south east are all well known and are not in the record of possessing any infantile dispositions as to mask their faces when baring their mind on weighty issues of national significance.
“Recall that barely a week ago, precisely on Wednesday, August 2, 2023, the leaders of the party in Abia State led by Distinguished Senators Chris Adighije and Nkechi Nwogu paid the deputy speaker a courtesy visit where they expressed their profound gratitude to President Tinubu for giving Ndigbo a sense of political renaissance and rejuvenation via the office he currently occupies today.
“At the meeting, the Deputy Speaker copiously called for brotherly love and support for all Ndigbo who are either occupying political offices now or yet to be appointed into such offices.
“Incidentally, one name that resonated at the meeting was that of Rt. Hon. Nkiruka Onyejiocha, the immediate past Deputy Chief Whip of the House of Representatives.
“At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the deputy speaker who edified and extolled the political credentials of his sister from Abia State said “Nobody here knows who the sun will shine on tomorrow. So, in this wisdom when you are lucky to have it shine on one of your own, treasure its pleasure and maximize it. It might be your turn tomorrow.
“And we should rally around you. You have done well by coming today to rally around this sun that’s shining now. It will make it brighter and stronger.
“We must therefore continue to push and together we shall overcome. Please push for more unity. I like the way you spoke. Go into reconciliation, open the windows and doors, let’s embrace people. That’s the spirit of togetherness, spirit of democracy. With this mindset, I guarantee you, we will achieve a lot soon.
“Like the leaders said, this call is an urgent call, some of you seniors who have been in the parliament, there are what we refer to as matters of national public importance, once it comes everything will wait. It must be attended first before other businesses of the day. And I consider this as one of such. As you rally round me, very soon our sister Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejiocha will also be fully crowned. Please rally round her. So, that through synergy, we pull our resources together to grow the party. It is in such atmosphere that I will like to operate.”
“And so, it will be incongruous to say that the same leaders of noble pedigree who spoke glowingly of President Tinubu’s generosity and open mindedness would suddenly make a volte face to pick holes in the choice of his ministerial nominees to the extent of wishing the party a total annihilation and extermination from the south-eastern hemispheres.
“Similarly, it will also be preposterous and vexatious to say that the deputy speaker is working in cahoots with some other leaders to battle the President over the nomination of Onyejiocha of Abia amongst other nominees from the remaining 4 States of the south east region.
“For purposes of recapitulation and accentuation, political nominations are the prerogatives of the president and every appointee serves at his pleasure in line with his dreams for a better Nigeria. And so, let it be entrenched that the deputy speaker’s office absolutely endorses the choice of Mr. President for ministers from the south east. Any contrary act can only be referred to as an evil machination of enemies of Ndigbo!
“We therefore call on the purveyors of this baseless report to retract it in their best interest and absolve themselves of the attendant public odium”.
