Abia House set for 4th Speaker within three months

There are indications that the Abia State House of Assembly (ABHA) will once again be forced to choose another Speaker as the constituents of the current Speaker, Chikwendu Kalu, wants him recalled over “bad reputation”.
This was sequel to a “Recall Action” statement/release by his Isiala Ngwa South constituents made available to the Abia Times which called on Rt. Hon. Chikwendu Kalu to “voluntarily resign and save his constituency of the headache of going through a recall process”.
Referring to a past publication of a national daily (not The Daily Times), the release said: “On the 27th of February 2017, Nigerians, Abians and in particular the good people of the Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency woke up to read a shocking publication at page 29 of a newspaper being the extract of the Direction given on the 9th day of September, 2013 by the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) of the Body of Benchers in a matter of stealing and theft involving the member representing the good people of Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency in the Abian State House of Assembly, Mr. Chikwendu Kalu”.
“The people of Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency are particularly miffed and horrified that the facts and existence of this Disciplinary Committee, LPDC entered in 2013 was totally hidden and hushed in the run-up to and the conduct of the 2015 general elections in one of the worst cover-ups in our history”, the constituents said stating further, “The people Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency never knew that the former Barrister Chikwendu Kalu had been probed, investigated and tried by his peers and colleagues, found to be a common thief and rogue and his name struck off from the roll of legal practitioners”.
This point was supported with a photocopy of the matter as held in Abuja between Nigerian Bar Association and Chikwendu Kalu Esq, reference number BB/LPDC/106 dated 9th and September, 2013.
“Since after that publication, we have taken steps to further investigate this matter and found out that the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) was also involved in investigating this matter and came to the same conclusion as the LPDC”.
According to the release, the Speaker as a lawyer could not account for some “money put in his care by his clients”, while accusing the clients of the theft of their money in his office, which the SCID later found out to be “false and baseless”.
“We are told that the two men who were clients to Chikwendu Kalu never recovered from the shock of the actions taken by a man who put himself forward as a lawyer and who they trusted with their affairs. They have since both died of heart break and their blood remains fixed on the head of Chikwendu Kalu”, the release which was signed by 6 constituents said, pointing out that the constituency “has decided to take steps to restore their honour, good name and reputation in the eyes of the world.
“As a first step, we on behalf of all the good people of the Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency apologise to all Nigerians and Abians for the embarrassment and shame we have brought on you by sending a nefarious and vile character like Chikwendu Kalu to be part of those to make laws for the good and well-being of the people of Abia Abia State. This was a terrible mistake and error which resulted from lack of knowledge of relevant facts as at the time of the 2015 elections.
“Notwithstanding the foregoing, Chikwendu Kalu still has a chance of offering some restitution to the good people of the Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency and Abians whom he deceived and have so terribly embarrassed, the constituents said.
“We therefore call on him not to wait to be recalled but to gather whatever is left of his tattered honour, reputation and conscience by voluntarily resigning his position as member representing the good people of Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly”, they said for history to be kind with him, pleading further with Abians to forgive them for the mistake of electing the lawmaker.
However, the release did not spare the Deputy Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Cosmos Ndukwe for trying “to defend pure criminality of their Speaker” through publication in a national newspaper (not The Daily Times) on March 1st this year.
The Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency people did not also spare their brother and Governor of the state, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu as they said “the good people of Isiala Ngwa South State Constituency are further shocked that the Governor of the state, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu, Ph.D., has not uttered a word in respect of the shameful scandal”.
When contacted on phone, the Speaker, Chikwendu Kalu said he was not aware of any call for him to resign or be recalled, pointing out that there is a process of recall which also has legal proceeding and not done on the pages of the newspaper.
According to him, the matter is in court and will be a subjudice for him to comment on that.
He described the authors of the release as “busy bodies, complete deviants, interlopers and meddlesome.
It would be recalled that barely 19 months into his assumption of office as the Governor of Abia State, three Speakers have saddled the leadership of the Abia State House of Assembly and now, moves are on to make it four within the last three four months in the life of the administration of this government.
On 29th December last year, Martins Azubuike of Isiala Ngwa North was impeached and replaced with the member representing Osisioma state constituency, Bishop Kennedy Njoku, as the new Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly and who barely 24 hours after, he resigned while that same day, Friday, December 30, 2016, the House in its plenary session, elected the now embattled Chikwendu Kalu as the Speaker.