Magnus Eze, Enugu
The Coalition of South East All Progressives Congress House of Assembly Candidates (COSEAHC) is backing former Abia State governor, Dr. Orji Kalu, as the deputy senate president in the Ninth Session of the National Assembly.
The group said the senator-elect for Abia North has all it takes to galvanise the South East for the APC, in future elections, if properly located in the senate.
A communiqué after the group’s meeting, at the weekend which was made available to Daily Sun, in Enugu, yesterday, said their expectation was that Kalu should go for the senate presidency but, since the party hierarchy has zoned it to the North East, they insisted that the South East should be compensated with the deputy.
The communiqué issued by the Acting Coordinator (Enugu), Joel Eze, Acting Secretary (Ebonyi), Ngozichi Okorie and Acting Public Relations Officer (Abia), Augustine Okezie, said Kalu is a role model to them and has shown outstanding capacity to make the APC, a dominant party in the South East.
“The man, Dr Orji Uzo Kalu, has successfully achieved the great task and uncommon feat of convincing an average Igbo person the need to align our geo-political zone with the APC-led government at the centre.
“It is worthy of note that he is not a novice in Nigeria’s parliamentary history, as he was a member of the National Assembly in 1992/1993, hence, is quite eligible and competent to occupy the office of the senate president.
“As a man with detribalised political ideology and history, we strongly believe that he will be committed to promoting a harmonious relationship with the Buhari-led Federal Government to launch us into the Next Level dream of our amiable President.
“Having been the youngest Nigerian to receive the Nigerian National Honours Award from President Ibrahim Babangida, at the age of 26, in 1986, he stands a role model and motivation to every Nigerian youth.
“He served as a member of the House of Representatives from 1992 to 1993 and held two key positions of deputy chairman of the Finance and Internal Affairs committees and moved the Dual Citizenship Rights Bill,” they stated.
The group, which major objective is to ensure that the five South East states are taken over by APC, in order to deepen democracy in the region, in particular, and the nation, at large, believes that giving Kalu a commanding position in the Ninth Senate, is in the interest of equity, fairness and justice.
