By Chinedum Treasure
A prominent Igbo youth organisation has dismissed as false Coalition of South East Youth Leaders (COSEYL) allegations against Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu regarding his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate and Nigerian Law School records by
The group, Youth Renaissance for Good Governance with membership of over 30,000 Igbo youths across 36 states of the federation and in diaspora described the COSEYL statement as “nauseating report that bore enormous falsehood” and demanded that the group produce the source of its so-called indicting report.
The group further noted that the pattern of attacking Kalu’s credentials is not new, describing it as recurring feature of every election cycle targeting prominent South-East political figures.
It urged COSEYL to focus on the tangible challenges confronting South-East youths rather than serve as instrument of political vendetta.
“We wish to place before the Nigerian public and all well-meaning citizens of the South-East the irrefutable fact that there exists no credible, official, or verified report indicting the Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu,” the group said in a statement signed by its National President, Dr. Ebekuo Madu, and National Secretary, Paul Nwachukwu.
The group pointed to a 2023 NYSC verification exercise as dispositive of the matter, noting that a senior NYSC director who participated in the investigation confirmed that Kalu’s certificate was duly obtained in full compliance with the NYSC Act.
“The NYSC had already issued a verification letter to that effect. The LPDC, on its part is too busy to entertain frivolous petitions,” it added.
The statement also dismissed any prospect of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) entertaining what the group called “an infantile and politically motivated petition built on fabricated allegations,” arguing that the LPDC’s mandate was too weighty to be weaponised for political ends.
The Youth Renaissance group trained particularly sharp language on what it described as orchestrated political desperation emanating from certain quarters in Abia State.
The group alleged that Kalu’s potential — including an undeclared but widely speculated gubernatorial ambition — had so alarmed rival political interests that they had gone as far as sponsoring protest groups from outside the South-East to agitate against him using public funds.
“Rt. Hon. Kalu has not even declared any intention to run for the governorship of Abia State, yet these desperate forces are so terrified of his potential that they have resorted to hiring proxies. This is both shameful and an affront to the dignity of our people,” it noted.
Acknowledging growing counter-mobilisation in support of the Deputy Speaker, with segments of South-East youth community said to be considering a solidarity rally on his behalf, the group appealed to Ndigbo to rise above shameless patterns of politics.
