{"id":240129,"date":"2026-01-23T16:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/i-am-not-blocking-otti-from-joining-apc-benjamin-kalu\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T16:00:40","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T16:00:40","slug":"i-am-not-blocking-otti-from-joining-apc-benjamin-kalu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/i-am-not-blocking-otti-from-joining-apc-benjamin-kalu\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am Not Blocking Otti From Joining APC \u2013 Benjamin Kalu"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\">\n<p>The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has dismissed claims that he is stopping Governor <a href=\"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.name.ng\/news\/Alex\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alex <\/a>Otti from joining the All Progressives Congress (APC).<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Friday while addressing journalists in his home at Bende, Bende LGA of <a href=\"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.name.ng\/news\/abia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Abia <\/a>State, Kalu stated that his invitation to Otti to join the party is borne out of friendship.<\/p>\n<p>He boasted that being a governor is not the ultimate ambition for people like him.<\/p>\n<p>Kalu said, \u201c<em>Even the narrative that I want to block him from coming to APC is not true.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cIf I was self-centered, I would have blocked him from entering APC but here I am the one inviting him to APC. Being Governor is not the ultimate ambition for people like me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Kalu said he is very interested in attracting development to his Bende Federal constituency, adding that any decision about his future political ambition would be made by the APC and the <a href=\"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.name.ng\/news\/abia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Abia <\/a>people.<\/p>\n<p>Kalu reiterated this support for the creation of one more state for the South East to enable the zone be at par with others.<\/p>\n<p>According to him, the creation of one State in the South East would help in national cohesion, unity and progress.<\/p>\n<p>The Deputy Speaker also dismissed reports that some ongoing roads he attracted to Bende have been abandoned.<\/p>\n<p><!-- CONTENT END 2 -->\n                                                                                                            <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has dismissed claims that he is stopping Governor Alex Otti from joining the All Progressives Congress (APC). Speaking on Friday while addressing journalists in his home at Bende, Bende LGA of Abia State, Kalu stated that his invitation to Otti to join the party is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":240130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[640,200],"class_list":["post-240129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-alex-otti","tag-benjamin-kalu"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Benjamin-Kalu.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abiaradiostations.com.ng\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}