{"id":199583,"date":"2026-04-26T19:21:54","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T18:21:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair"},"modified":"2026-04-26T20:32:30","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T19:32:30","slug":"gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair","title":{"rendered":"Gov Otti Defends Appointing Kalu’s Wife as Board Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Governor Alex Otti has defended the recent appointment of Dr Ezinne Chinyere Benjamin-Kalu, as the Board Chairman for Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba.<\/p>\n

Dr Ezinne is the wife of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, who has been a public antagonist of Governor Otti.<\/p>\n

Otti, who gave reasons for his actions on Saturday during the wedding of his Aide-de-Camp, ASP Emeka Ogbonna, said the appointment was given to Dr Kalu based on merit and her capacity, not because of political purposes or calculations.<\/p>\n

The Abia Governor who was reacting to the trending criticisms trailing hospital board appointment, described all negative comments as \u201cnoise\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said that he was not interested in the political party an individual belonged to when giving appointments, explaining that Dr Ezinne Benjamin-Kalu came first among the seven persons he had interviewed in 2025 for the Abia State University Teaching Hospital Board Chairman\u2019s job.<\/p>\n

He said, \u201cRecently, we made an appointment for the Chairman of Abia State University Teaching Hospital Board. And somehow, I think I hear some noise left, right, and center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t care whether she\u2019s APC or PDP or YPP or whatever. Those are not important.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t even care whether she\u2019s from Abia or from Delta or from anywhere. We are interested in what is in her brain\u201d, Otti said.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Governor Alex Otti has defended the recent appointment of Dr Ezinne Chinyere Benjamin-Kalu, as the Board Chairman for Abia State University Teaching Hospital, Aba. Dr Ezinne is the wife of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, who has been a public antagonist of Governor Otti. Otti, who gave […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":199582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-199583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"\nGov Otti Defends Appointing Kalu's Wife as Board Chair - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Governor Alex Otti has defended the recent appointment of Dr Ezinne Chinyere Benjamin-Kalu, as the Board Chairman for Ab ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gov Otti Defends Appointing Kalu's Wife as Board Chair\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Governor Alex Otti has defended the recent appointment of Dr Ezinne Chinyere Benjamin-Kalu, as the Board Chairman for Ab ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T18:21:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-26T19:32:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/sm_1777231692.481213.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Gov Otti Defends Appointing Kalu’s Wife as Board Chair\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-26T18:21:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-26T19:32:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair\"},\"wordCount\":248,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/04\/sm_1777231692.481213.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/gov-otti-defends-appointing-kalus-wife-as-board-chair\",\"name\":\"Gov Otti Defends Appointing Kalu's Wife as Board Chair - 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