Alleged Anti-party activities: Deputy Speaker, Tinubu’s Minister at war
A support group of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the Progressive League of Youth Voters, has said that there is an ongoing rivalry between the deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu and the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkiruka Onyejeocha.
The group, at a briefing in Abuja on Tuesday, said certain anti-party activities are pitting the deputy speaker against the minister and affecting the unity of the ruling party in Abia State where both of them came from.
The National Coordinator of the group, Amb. Usman Shuaibu, said it has become an embarrassment that some leaders of the APC engage in anti-party activities, openly castigating a committed party flagbearer who has given her all to ensure the victory of the party in the last general elections.
Shuaibu said: “The most recent is the sponsored campaign of calumny against Nkeiruka Onyejeocha who flew the party’s flag in Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency of Abia State in the February 25, 2023 National Assembly elections. She is at present the minister of state for labour and employment.
“It is no longer news that Nkeiruka who is our party’s flagbearer was robbed of her victory by the Labour Party in Abia State, where they deployed unethical means during the Presidential and National Assembly elections against the APC. Recall that some APC groups raised the alarm calling for the restoration of her mandate which she vigorously pursued at the tribunal and won.
“Since her victory at the tribunal, which is the ultimate triumph of APC in Abia State, some highly placed persons in the National Assembly have unleashed a campaign of calumny against her person using mushroom organizations to blackmail Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and the APC in a bid to bully her to abandon her victory at the Appeal Court.
“We make bold to say, that we have identified the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Mr. Benjamin Kalu, who sees the victory of the Honourable Minister as a political threat instead of a blessing as the sponsor of the blackmail against Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
“We call on the national chairman of our great party, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, who is reconciling and repositioning the party for a better tomorrow to immediately call Mr. Benjamin Kalu to order before he destroys the party completely in Abia State.”
Responding to the allegation, the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, distanced himself from alleged campaign of calumny against Onyejeocha, asking her to focus on the immediate demands of her office and and stop raising false alarms through proxies.
Chief Press Secretary to the deputy speaker, Levinus Nwabughiogu, said the press conference was misdirected or at best, done without the consent of the minister who obviously would be embarrassed by it because it had the imprints of a people on a mission to infamy and perfidy.
He said: “But the fact that Onyejeocha has not yet disassociated herself from the press conference leaves a huge worry and casts aspersions on her person as to what manner of a minister would be creating an impression of someone deliberately courting trouble where none exists.
“From what is conceivably right and true, Onyejeocha is a sister whose integrity would be brutally assaulted by a group that chooses to drag her name to raising false accusations.
