Ahead of the 2027 general elections, a chieftain of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, Comrade Adolphus Ude has warned the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, against attempting to rig South-East geo-political zone for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Ude issued the warning in a press release on Wednesday while reacting to a statement by Kalu, urging Igbos not to waste their votes, but to support President Bola Tinubu of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) in 2027.
The Deputy Speaker who represents Bende federal constituency, spoke in Abia last Sunday.
While asking Igbos not to be “sentimental” with their votes, he called on them to be strategic and pragmatic in their electoral choices, stressing that their votes should be invested, rather than wasted.
Kalu said: “If you carry your votes and dump it where it does not count towards success, you have wasted your opportunity to go to the negotiating table. Why do we ask for dividends if we have not made any investments?”
Irked by the statement of the Deputy Speaker, Ude, who is also the National Coordinator of ADC Like-Minds, declared the entire five states of the South-East geo-political zone a “no-go area” for election riggers during the 2027 general elections.
The ADC chieftain described the statement by Kalu as not only irresponsible and reckless, but equally unjustifiable, unwarranted, uncalled-for.
Ude said: “Benjamin Kalu should face the crumbs from the President’s table that he is eating, and keep his mouth shut, rather than telling us that we should not waste our votes. We know that he came from a poor background before going to the House and emerging Deputy Speaker.
“If he is telling us that they have written the results of the 2027 general elections already and that we should not go for election, we will listen to him. Let him tell us that the results have been written.
“We will see if what the United States of America did in Venezuela will not repeat in Nigeria if he and his master rig the general elections, coming up in a few months’ time.”
Speaking further, Ude told Kalu to stop insulting Ndigbo with his utterances, challenging him to publicize what he has attracted to Abia State and the South-East since he became the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Regarding the call by Kalu for South-East to form alliances, particularly with the South-West in 2027, Ude said there was never a time that South-East formed an alliance with the South-West.
According to him, “if not that the Deputy Speaker lacked sense of history, he ought to have known that the South-West severally betrayed the South-East in the past, including during and after the Nigeria-Biafra civil war.”
Ude recalled that after the war, a South-Westerner, Chief Obafemi Awolowo as the Minister of Finance under the regime of General Yakubu Gowon, implemented the 20 pounds controversial financial reconciliation policy, targeted against the Igbos who suffered devastation during the war.
The ADC chieftain regretted that Igbos were targeted in Lagos during and after the 2023 general elections, and their properties massively destroyed by the authorities, simply because of how they voted during the election.
He said: “We have not heard from Kalu since the demolition of Igbo hard-earned properties in Lagos. Igbo properties are destroyed every day in Lagos. Why did he not comment on that?
“We in the ADC Like-Minds do not support seccession. However, Nnamdi Kanu is languishing in prison for a matter that can be resolved politically. Kalu did not comment on that.
“Did Kalu comment on the exclusion of the South East from the coastal highway from Lagos to Calabar? Has he said anything about the concentration of seaports in Lagos?
“Can’t he attract seaport to Igboland to ease the difficulties of Igbo businessmen? Tinubu is offering Igbos bread soaked in water. What has Kalu said about that? He should stop insulting us.”
Ude told the Deputy Speaker to perish the thought of South-East Supporting Tinubu, who has not only sustained, but systematically escalated Igbo marginalization in Nigeria, through his government’s distribution of infrastructure and political appointments.
Meanwhile, Ude has insisted that the forthcoming governorship election in Enugu State must be transparent to reflect the wishes of the people of the State.
He said the people in Enugu cannot afford another anti-people government that would inflict more tax burden on them, like the Tinubu government at the national level.
