Anietie Udobit, Abuja
The Bende Leadership Forum (BLF) has warned the Minister of state for Labour and Employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejiocha to henceforth stop distracting Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, from discharging the duties for which he was elected.
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The group, in a statement signed by the president, High Chief Kingsley Enwere, a former Human Resources Administrative Officer of the ECOWAS Commission, on Thursday, October 26, in Abuja, urges the minister to channel her energy towards job creation as the teeming youths need to be taken off the streets.
According to the statement obtained by UNITY TIMES, the warning is the only and final advise that will be given to ‘their daughter’ Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
It reads: “Any further blackmail or sponsored media attack on her brother will be met with a more virulent response and actions that will resonate beyond imaginable proportions.”
“We called this press conference to express our displeasure with the recent sponsored media attacks against our illustrious son, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“We have every reason to believe that though the press conferences are done by proxy, they have the imprints of the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejiocha, because she has not denied nor refuted the allegations made by the group.
Rising from our meeting, we carefully examined the contents of the different unscrupulous allegations contained in the press conferences.”
The group said the allegation that Hon. Kalu is sponsoring a campaign of calumny against Hon. Onyejeocha is false and that APC stakeholders should call Onyejeocha to order:
“We reject in totality the testaments that our son, the Deputy Speaker, was engaging in anti-party activities in Abia APC.
“We also refute the submission that he is sponsoring a campaign of calumny against Nkeiruka Onyejeocha.
“We are using this medium to call on all well-meaning APC stakeholders to call her to order.
“We regret that Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, our daughter in Abia, has chosen such an ignoble route to smear the image of one of the best and brightest sons of Abia, who President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his colleague at the National Assembly saw for his credibility and capacity and supported his emergency as the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
“The Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, is not a member of the Labour Party and has no business in whatever issue is ongoing between Nkeiruka Onyejeocha and the Labour Party candidate, as he is very busy working on the duties and responsibilities of his office. It is regrettable that instead of working together with her brother, she has chosen to sponsor faceless groups to attack the Deputy Speaker.
“For purposes of recapitulation, Kalu is representing Bende Federal Constituency, while Onyejiocha hails from Isiukwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency. Though both constituencies are in Abia State, there is no political affinity between them to ignite any interest.
One wonders what the intents and purposes of these in-fightings, baseless blackmails are, because they are subtly distracting the hardworking Deputy Speaker from continuing to set his unbeaten records of impeccable legislative sagacity and unmatched representative robustness.”
The Leaders Forum call on Onyejeocha to first resign her position as a minister, so that another Abia North Son or daughter can replace her, if she prefers to be in the National Assembly again after 16 years, and then concentrate on reclaiming her supposed mandate.
“It is only after she has succeeded in reclaiming her supposed mandate that she can start scheming for a principal position in the National Assembly.
The group resolves: “That we are surprised that Hon Nkeiruka Onyejeocha seems to be having sleepless nights over the position of the Deputy speaker occupied by her own brother, Rt Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu.
“What we do not know is why she seems to be averse to the political successes of her own brother.
That is anti Abia North, anti-Igbo and Anti Human!
“ That we knew Rt Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu as a goal getter, who has always made Abia North and Abia state proud, the reason he was singled out as the Reps Spokesperson as a first timer in his first tenure. We are therefore not surprised at the turn of events.
“That as at the time Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu was elected Deputy Speaker, Hon Onyejeocha was not there, and still not a member of the National Assembly even up to this moment, one wonders whether she had expected the southeast, and the National Assembly and Nigeria to stand still and wait for her to reclaim her mandate before electing principal officers of the house of representatives.
“That we are aware that our daughter Onyejeocha had spent 3 tenures of 12 years in the National Assembly before her brother and our son Hon. Benjamin Kalu was elected, and that she didn’t ascend these positions she now covets from outside the national Assembly when there was no Benjamin Kalu in the National Assembly to contend with her.
“We had expected our daughter Onyejeocha, rather than feeling defeated, inferior, obsolete and depleted, to erupt with joy and be proud that in her absence, her own brother fulfilled her lifelong dreams in just 5 years, and as a veteran, embrace him, give him all the support, advise and encouragement he needs to succeed.
“That Rt. Hon Benjamin Okezie Kalu is not responsible for his sisters political circumstances which may afterall be temporary as they do not belong to the same constituency and therefore should not be a victim of her misplaced and transferred aggression.
“That we advise Onyejeocha to concentrate on the job given to her as a minister, which she holds in trust for the entire southeast, rather than engaging in acts capable of pulling down her own brother from a position she, at least as of this moment, cannot fill because, till date, she is still not a member of the National Assembly”.