By Michael Agbaji
A pro-democracy group under the aegis of Niger Delta Political Assembly (NDPA), has said the campaign of calumny against the Chief Whip of the Senate, Orji Uzor Kalu by Kazeem Afegbua is total disappointment to the South South region
A statement on Friday by the leader of the group, Dr. Offiong Offiong warned Afegbua to desist from campaign of calumny against the former Abia State Governor in his desperate bid to becomes “Akpabio’s SA on Media”.
Kazeem Afegbua, a former Commissioner of Information in Edo State said that Senator Orji Uzor Kalu is not in a position to call for the Senate Presidency to be zoned to the South East. Afegbua claimed that Kalu lacked the moral authority to make such a call as the former Governor of Abia state was initially against Bola Tinubu’s presidential ambition.
But reacting today, the Niger Delta Political Assembly accused Afegbua of hate against the former Abia State Governor in order to impress his paymaster, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
“If you’ve been following Afegbua’s approach, it is a campaign of calumny against Distinguished Senator Orji Uzor Kalu. It is not because of his (Kalu’s) aspiration now, he (Afegbua) was promised Special Adviser on Media by Senator Godswill Akpabio. Therefore, we are not surprised that at any given instance, Orji Uzor Kalu will always come to the fore,” the Leader of the group, Offiong, stated.
The group further wondered why Afegbua would be talking about issues that happened before the primary election of the All Progressives Congress, noting that the APC went into the presidential election as one united party after the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the party’s flagbearer.
“Afegbua feels without attacking or blackmailing Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, Akpabio would deny him of the appointment he promised him. It is sad that he decided to embark on a campaign of calumny against Distinguished Senator Orji Uzor Kalu by using Kalu’s support for the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan. Afegbua has forgotten that the APC went into the election as one united family after the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the party’s flagbearer. Every leader of the party worked hard for Tinubu’s victory including Distinguished Senator Orji Uzor Kalu. We dare say without fear of contradiction that Distinguished Senator Orji Uzor Kalu mobilised Nigerians and risked his own personality for the victory of Asiwaju.”
While calling on the national leadership of the APC to reconsider its zoning formula and rescue the party from going into crisis ahead of the inauguration of the 10th national assembly, it reiterated that sycophantic characters like Afegbua should be ignored by the APC and the President-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu whose sole aim is to drive division among Nigerians.
“Afegbua is among the group of disgruntled politicians in the camp of Godswill Akpabio trying to set the country ablaze for their selfish individual interest. He is simply disgruntled on account of their failure to hijack the national assembly through the devious means they contrived including blackmailing the President-elect and members of the NWC. This statement is to warn him to desist from blackmailing the Chief Whip of the Senate in order to gain favour from his paymaster, the statement said.
