{"id":14300,"date":"2026-11-10T16:00:51","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T16:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/10\/item-community-apologises-to-kalu-over-festival-disruption\/"},"modified":"2026-11-10T16:00:51","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T16:00:51","slug":"item-community-apologises-to-kalu-over-festival-disruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/10\/item-community-apologises-to-kalu-over-festival-disruption\/","title":{"rendered":"Item Community apologises to Kalu over festival disruption"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Item-Community-apologises-to-Kalu-over-festival-disruption.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt=\"Item Community apologises to Kalu over festival disruption\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Item-Community-apologises-to-Kalu-over-festival-disruption.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-10-at-3.16.04-PM-1-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-10-at-3.16.04-PM-1-768x512.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-10-at-3.16.04-PM-1-1536x1024.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-10-at-3.16.04-PM-1-2048x1365.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Item Development Association (IDA), Aba Branch, has condemned the disruption of a speech by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, at the Item Cultural Festival in Aba, Abia State.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The association also dissociated the Item community in Aba from the incident and tendered an unreserved apology to the Deputy Speaker over the embarrassment caused by the conduct of some individuals at the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cultural festival was held at the Abia State College of Health Sciences and Management Technology, Aba, on Saturday, November 7, 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Item is a major community in Bende Federal Constituency of Abia State, comprising three of the 13 electoral wards in the constituency.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The community members resident in Aba had invited Kalu, who represents Bende Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, to the event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite having spent the day in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, attending the APC presidential campaign rally, the Deputy Speaker proceeded to Aba to honour the invitation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a statement jointly signed by the Chairman of IDA, Aba Branch, Chief David Kalu Uduma, and its Secretary, Sunday Peter Iroegbu, the association described the disruption as the handiwork of mischief makers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It regretted that the cultural event was politicised, insisting that those who engaged in political chants did not represent the Item community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"744\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Item-Community-apologises-to-Kalu-over-festival-disruption-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3006221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Item-Community-apologises-to-Kalu-over-festival-disruption-1.jpg 744w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-10-at-3.16.04-PM-218x300.jpeg 218w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-10-at-3.16.04-PM-768x1057.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.vanguardngr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-11-10-at-3.16.04-PM.jpeg 930w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 744px) 100vw, 744px\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe leadership of Item Development Association (IDA), Aba Branch, on behalf of the entire Item community in Aba, wishes to dissociate itself from the unfortunate incident that occurred during the speech of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Okezie Kalu, Ph.D, CFR, at the Item Cultural Festival held at the Abia State College of Health Sciences and Management Technology, Aba, on Saturday, 7th November 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe categorically condemn the unruly conduct of a few persons, which we consider the handiwork of mischief makers, and sincerely regret the embarrassment it caused.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe people of Item are peace-loving, cultured and respectful of constituted authority. Such conduct does not reflect our values or represent the character of our people,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The association also expressed appreciation for Kalu\u2019s conduct during the incident, describing his response as statesmanlike.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe therefore tender our unreserved apologies to the Distinguished Deputy Speaker and deeply appreciate his statesmanlike disposition in the face of the unfortunate incident,\u201d the statement added.<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/2026\/11\/item-community-apologises-to-kalu-over-festival-disruption\/\">Item Community apologises to Kalu over festival disruption<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanguardngr.com\/\">Vanguard News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Source: <\/p>\n<div class=\"nSourse\">Vanguard News<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Item Development Association (IDA), Aba Branch, has condemned the disruption of a speech by the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Okezie Kalu, at the Item Cultural&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14301,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}