The Southeast Youth Forum (SYF) has called out Hon. Ben Kalu for accepting his endorsement as the next Deputy Speaker by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The ruling party had announced Hon Tajudeen Abbass as its preferred aspirant for the position of Speaker and Kalu to serve as his deputy.
Reacting to the stance of the APC and the subsequent acceptance by Kalu, the SYF stated that the Abia state federal lawmaker is ”a lily-livered politician with no conviction.”
SYF national coordinator Osita Edozien said in a statement:
”Ben Kalu has betrayed the Igbo cause by accepting to be Deputy Speaker when we in the zone are rooting for the Senate Presidency.
”He has sold his conscience for a pot of porridge, although we are not surprised. Kalu has a thing for betrayal, so he is just exhibiting his typical character.
”We reject his endorsement and caution the APC not to toy with the resilience of people from the southeast. We deserve better and we will fight for it.”
The group also encouraged Senators Orji Uzor-Kalu and Osita Izunaso, to refrain from bowing to any pressure from the ruling party to drop their Senate Presidency ambition.
Edozien added:
”Rather, we urge them to work with each other and present one candidate for the election to stand a good chance of clinching the Senate Presidency.
”Let me reiterate that Ben Kalu is on his own. His purported endorsement had no input from the southeast, so a stooge cannot be imposed on us.
”We’ll instead go for a higher office and back courageous senators like Izunaso or Orj-Kalu to give us a strong standing in national politics.”
He warned that:
”Any attempt to shortchange the southeast by using a spineless and unpopular lawmaker to thwart our aspirations will be resisted with every lawful means available.”
