Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abia State on Sunday met and formally endorsed former Gov. Orji Kalu, the Senator-elect for Abia North Senatorial District, for the Deputy Senate President in the 9th National Assembly (NASS).
The meeting, which took place at Camp Neya, the country home of Kalu in Igbere, Bende Local Government Area of Abia, also endorsed Rep. Nkiru Onyejeocha, representing Isuikwuato/Umunneochi Federal Constituency, for the Speakership of the House of Representatives.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the formal endorsement followed a motion moved at the meeting by Sen. Chris Adighije, the Abia APC Caucus Leader.
He described the candidacy of Kalu and Onyejeocha as a collective project for all the party faithful, saying that everybody had a role to play toward its realisation.
Adighije, who represented Abia central from 2003-2007, promised to reach out to his friends in the Senate and House of Representatives to solicit their votes for the candidates.
He described the meeting, the first of its kind after the general elections, as imperative to enable the party to do a postmortem of the party’s performance at the polls in Abia.
“There is need for a postmortem to enable us to examine the reasons why we lost the governorship election after putting all our efforts,” he said.
Adighije admonished the state chairman of the party, Chief Donatus Nwankpa “to stand more firmly and resolute” in his actions.
He said that as the chairman of the party, his position at any point in time also represented the position of the party.
Onyejeocha spoke on the need for the party members to join the struggle for Ndigbo to produce the next Nigeria’s president in 2023.
“We need to produce the next president of Nigeria so that our fortunes will change,” she said.
She advocated that any party faithful found to have worked against the interest of the party during the general elections should be made to leave the party.
Onyejeocha, who would be making her fourth term in NASS, formally announced her ambition to run for the Speakership of the House.
“I am still in the race and hope to finish well,” she said.
