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I took the bullet for Tinubu, APC in the South East, reward me with Speaker – Kalu

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Benjamin Kalu, member representing Bende Federal Constituency of Abia State and spokesperson of the House of Representatives, has told anybody who cares to listen that he is not only interested in assuming office as the Speaker, but deserves the office, due to the sacrifice he had made for the All Progressives Congress (APC), the ruling party not only at the executive but federal legislature.

Kalu, told reporters on Wednesday in Abuja, debunked insinuations that he was not interested in the position, yet to be held by the South East, saying: “The speculation out there as to whether or not I have shown interest to contest for the speakership for the 10th assembly is true,” Kalu said.

“Yes, I’m interested in that position. I’m interested in becoming the next speaker of the house of representatives. I’m competent to lead the green chamber. No lawmaker from the South East has been a speaker in four decades. The country needs to bridge the gap in diversity insensitivity to foster cohesion.”

Warning that electing their leaders, must be left to the members of the National Assembly and that governors must not have any role to play, he said: “We need to have new members buy into our competence to lead. It is not good for leaders at home to impose (someone) that will lead the members of the parliament without the members having any knowledge about who is coming to lead them.

“I’m bringing on board transformative, and legislative intervention that is based on innovation and it is only people like us who have been equipped that will be able to bridge that gap.”

Boasting of his role to sell the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the South East, particularly the presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu when “it was like a taboo to do so,” Kalu, the only member of the Green Chamber from Abia, insisted that this must count in determining the decision of the party on his suitability.

Hear him: “The APC gave me a platform. I was the only member of APC that fought and won for the house of representatives in Abia state. I defended my party, I took bullets for my party. I projected my presidential candidate even when it was like a taboo to do so in the South Eastern region. My office received hundreds of bullets or more because I was preaching APC.

“It is time for a reward. If there is loyalty to the party, loyalty should always be rewarded to stimulate further loyalty. If I stood firm to win for my party in Bende federal constituency, as the only surviving APC house of reps member in the entire Abia state, it means that I have something to offer and I defended my party.

“It is time for my party to let my people know that I didn’t make any mistake by standing by the party. Let them give us what is my due based on my qualification.”

He however, maintained that he would toe the line of the APC decision on the matter, including taking other postions outsice that of the Speaker, adding: “As a party man, I’ll oblige my party. I believe in the supremacy of the party — that is key. You can have your aspiration, you can dream but it must be within the control of the platform for which you got to the house.”

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Why Trump must never smell White House again – Pence

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Donald Trump, former President of the United States, would now be slugging it out with his former deputy Mike Pence for the ticket of the Republican Party to next year’s presidential election, having fully launched his campaigns for that purpose.

Pence, who did not part with his former principal on a friendly note, following his rejection in joining Trump to protest the outcome of the last election, which threw them out of office, was at a community college in Iowa on Wednesday, where he accused Trump of abandoning conservative principles.

He also accused Trump of dereliction of duty on January 6, 2021 – the day the US Capitol Building was invaded by insurrectionists, adding that the former President, besieged the Capitol after the former president insisted he could overturn election results.

The former Vice President, who is one of the frontrunners for the Republican ticket, also condemned Trump’s anti-conservative values and abortion stance, adding that the former POTUS should never be re-elected for putting himself above the US constitution.

“I believe anyone that puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the United States, and anyone who asks someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the United States again.

“After leading the most pro-life administration in American history, Donald Trump and others in this race are retreating from the cause of the unborn. The sanctity of life has been our party’s calling for half a century-long before Trump was a part of it. Now he treats it as an inconvenience, even blaming our election losses in 2022 on overturning Roe v. Wade.”

Pence pledged to “restore a threshold of civility in public life,” saying the country needs leaders who know the difference between the “politics of outrage and standing firm”.

 

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Again Nigeria, has missed out in the list of African countries given the official nod to visit Canada without visa, as two other countries for the continent has been added to the list of 13 different countries across Asia, Africa, Central and South America, announced by the country’s authorities.

The Canadian Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Sean Fraser disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, said visa-free travel is extended to Antigua and Barbuda, St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, St Kitts-Nevis, Panama, Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Morocco, Seychelles, st. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thailand and the Philippines.

While north Africa’s Morocco and East Africa’s Seychelles joined the list, Nigeria the most populous African nation didn’t make the cut, with Fraser, saying: “An expansion of the electronic travel authorization better known as the eTA programs makes it easier for ‘known travellers’ from those countries to come here for fun and business.’

Stating that the expansion not only enhanced convenience for travellers, it would also increase travel, tourism and economic benefits, as well as strengthen global bonds with these 13 countries, he said: “The known travellers from these countries can save a lot of money as a result of the visa exemptions.”

A visitor visa currently costs $100 per person and $500 for a family of five or more, but an eTA only costs seven dollars per person and is valid for as long as five years.

According to the government, introducing visa-free air travel will make it faster, easier, and more affordable for thousands of travellers to visit Canada for up to six months for either business or leisure.

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Police save man, lady accused of ritual murder from lynch-mob in Anambra *Say victims innocent

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It has turned out that the two people, a man and a lady, seen in a viral video, being assaulted by an angry mob who were about to set them on fire for allegedly killing two men in Anambra community for ritual purposes, are not guilty of the offence.

Anambra State Police Command, who confirmed on Thursday that the two had been rescued by their operatives, from the hands of the angry mob in Ihiala, Ihiala Local Government Area of the state, who attempted to set them on fire, claimed that they were being wrongly accused.

Spokesman of the command Tochukwu Ikenga, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), and spokesman of the command, who made the disclosure in a statement, said that its operatives rescued two victims and a suspect who was about to be lynched by an angry mob at the Total Junction in Ihiala.

Stating that the incident was not a case of ritual killing but a pure incident of murder, he said: “Preliminary information reveals that the two victims, a man and a woman, who were humiliated and paraded as shown in social media video by the angry mob, were erroneously accused by the mob. The victims were seen at the scene where the murder took place and were not the perpetrators.”

Ikenga, who informed that both the suspect and the victims were currently receiving treatment in an undisclosed hospital while the deceased has been deposited in a morgue, appealed to the public never to take laws into their hands irrespective of assumed offence.

Disclosing that the Commissioner of Police (CP), Echeng Echeng, was already on top of the situation and had since sued for calm, he added that the police boss had also ordered the immediate transfer of the case to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), for a comprehensive investigation, while assuring that further developments would be communicated to the public and that all residents to go about their lawful duties.

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