By Ifeizu Joe
A prominent Igbo youth organisation, Youth Renaissance for Good Governance has said that the political attacks on the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu was because of his undeclared governorship ambition in Abia State.
The youth group was reacting to recent allegations of irregularities in the lawmakers record while serving the mandatory one year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and his time at Nigerian Law School.
Allegations of discrepancies within the lawmakers year of service and the clash with his time at the Nigerian Law School have become recurring, with the latest being a call by another youth group, Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) calling on the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) to investigate and sanction the lawmaker.
But Youth Renaissance for Good Governance in a press statement by its National President and National Secretary, Dr. Ebekuo Madu and Paul Nwachukwu respectively described the COSEYL statement as a “nauseating report that bore enormous falsehood” and demanded that the group produce the source of its so-called indicting report.
It said since the speculation that the deputy speaker may run for governor of Abia State in 2027, there have been attacks from a small group of people from the state, trying hard to pull him down, even when he was yet to declare any intention.
The group said: “Kalu’s potential — including an undeclared but widely speculated gubernatorial ambition — had so alarmed rival political interests that they had gone as far as sponsoring protest groups from outside the South-East to agitate against him using public funds.
“Rt. Hon. Kalu has not even declared any intention to run for the governorship of Abia State, yet these desperate forces are so terrified of his potential that they have resorted to hiring proxies.This is both shameful and an affront to the dignity of our people.
“We wish to place before the Nigerian public and all well-meaning citizens of the South-East the irrefutable fact that there exists no credible, official, or verified report indicting the Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu.
“We point to a 2023 NYSC verification exercise as dispositive of the matter, noting that a senior NYSC director who participated in the investigation confirmed that Kalu’s certificate was duly obtained in full compliance with the NYSC Act.
“The NYSC had already issued a verification letter to that effect. On the LPDC, the body is too busy to entertain frivolous petitions.
“The Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) entertaining an infantile and politically motivated petition built on fabricated allegations is not the mandate of the Committee. The committee is too big to be weaponized for political ends.
“The attack is an orchestrated political desperation emanating from certain quarters in Abia State. This pattern of attacking Kalu’s credentials is not new, it is a recurring feature of every election cycle targeting prominent South-East political figures.
“We urge COSEYL to focus instead on the tangible challenges confronting South-East youths rather than serve as an instrument of political vendetta.”
The group also circulated verification letter issued by the NYSC on the authenticity of Kalu’s certificate, stating that was a letter in answer to a previous attack on the lawmaker on same subject matter, which also put paid to the controversy.
