Ahead of the 2027 elections, Benjamin Kalu, the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, on Friday, January 23, encouraged Alex Otti to join the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Legit.ng reports that Kalu said the Abia governor, a member of the Labour Party (LP), should team up with the ruling party “because he was one of us.”
Speaking at his residence in Bende Local Government Area (LGA), the federal lawmaker said: “I was asking the governor to join the APC because he was one of us. He was one of those who sprinted his party in this state.”
Kalu continued: “There is collaboration in political movements. There is synergy in political movements. And I felt Abians was isolated when the likes of his brother governors sit down to push for anything that would benefit the southeast. And I said, it would be good for him to come (to the APC).
“Many people don’t know that he was my friend before politics. He will be my friend. Moreover, what is wrong in a friend asking his friend, ‘come, let’s continue from where you started?’ What is wrong with that? And like you rightly pointed out, the pressure is there from different quarters.”
He added: “There’s nothing wrong if the political party goes about scouting for membership. If I reach out to him and say, ‘come and be a member,’ just like I reached out to some members.
“In the past, I reached out to Governor Theodore Orji. I said, ‘come and be our member’. We kept pushing. Today, he is part of us; he has joined us.
“I think I did what I was supposed to do as a party leader. We are just told to reach out to more people. That’s what we are doing.”
The X video can be watched below:
