•_Says Deputy Speaker has committed no wrong_

*A group, Igbo Mandate Movement Group, IMMG has faulted the campaign of calumny in the wake of comments made by the Deputy Speaker, Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu on Alex Otti as the last Labour Party member who would serve as Governor of Abia State, attributing such to healthy politics.*

The group made this known in a statement from its headquarters in Enugu.

The statement, which was signed by its National Chairman, Igboeli Arinze, wondered what wrong the Deputy Speaker had committed by seeking to have a member of his party, the All Progressives Congress, APC as the state’s governor come 2027, describing such a statement as a sign of healthy politics which required maturity and not the unnecessary pull him down comments flying all over the place.

Arinze said that the Deputy Speaker has done no wrong but was only trying to advance the interest of Ndi Abia via his comments and all that was needed was for Otti and his supporters to meet Kalu and the APC in the field on Election Day.

The statement read as thus: We as members of the Igbo Mandate Movement Group, IMMG have largely become mortified by the type of responses coming from persons who are feeling threatened by the honest position of the Deputy Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Rt Hon Benjamin Kalu on who becomes the next occupant of Government House, Umuahia come 2027.

What Kalu has said is merely what any sensible politician will say owing to the fact that it will serve the interest of Ndi Abia State more if the state is governed by a member of the APC, enabling the state to benefit more from its connection to the centre. So what wrong has the Deputy Speaker done by informing Otti that the party at the centre is interested in the seat.

Kalu has merely utilized his democratic right of expression and all that remains is for Otti to begin to prepare for the election if he is indeed sure of himself and his level of performance and not all these immature set of condemnations that has greeted such a call.

Those who know Kalu well and have followed his antecedents know that the deputy speaker is consistently marketing the party to any sitting governor of the state to join the APC. it didn’t start with Governor Otti . He spoke boldly as well for Gov Ikpeazu to join APC without these diverse interpretations given to it!

The deputy speaker will never relent in his effort to win the state for APc and other parties are allowed to lay claim to the government house that’s politics and should not be personalised after all he took time to praise Governor Otti too

This is a democracy and for as long as the Deputy Speaker has not advocated for violent change but change through the campaign hustings and the ballot box then it is for the Labour Party in the state to healthily welcome such a challenge since it would deepen our democracy. “

The group warned that it would not tolerate any form of attack on the Deputy Speaker who’s performance at the lower chambers had been quite exceptional and worthy of celebrating, commending him for a number of achievements,particularly the signing of the South East Development Commission Bill into law by the President Bola Tinubu administration.