Speakers deny alleged adoption of Udenwa for presidency
From Lawrence Njoku, Enugu
SPEAKERs of the Houses of Assembly in the South East have denied a report by a national daily that they have adopted the Imo State Governor, Chief Achike Udenwa, as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate from the zone.
In a reaction yesterday, the Enugu House of Assembly Speaker, Chief Abel Chukwu, said that the matter was not discussed at last week's meeting of the legislature's helmsmen in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
Chukwu, therefore, urged journalists to always verify their facts before publishing, in the interest of the nation's fledgling democracy.
Chukwu told reporters that there was no iota of truth in the report, adding that there was no time in which an issue of the adoption of Udenwa as the zone's candidate for Presidency in 2007 was discussed at the Speakers' forum.
"I took part in that meeting and signed the communique. I was confused and dumbfounded when I read the report in the said newspaper, that the Speakers canvassed the adoption of Udenwa as the presidential candidate of the zone. I quickly got in touch with the Speakers of Anambra and Abia states over the report. They expressed a lot of worry that we could be so quoted. We never canvassed for Udenwa as our presidential candidate. It is erroneous and it is not in my character to accept what I never agreed to".
Showing journalists copies of the resolutions reached at the meeting which was signed by the five Speakers from the zone, he maintained that the lawmakers only called for support of all Igbo in the task of realising the dream of making their kinsmen the president of the country in 2007, and on the construction of the second Niger Bridge in Onitsha among other problems confronting the zone.
He stated that all the governors in the zone were qualified to vie for the Presidency in 2007, adding that it was not the duty of the Speakers to canvass for who becomes the candidate especially, when the purported aspirant was yet to declare interest in the office.
Chukwu called on the Igbo to join hands with their umbrella body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo and the South East Caucus of the PDP in the bid to clinch the Presidency in the 2007 polls.
