The Ebonyi State Governor, Engr Dave Umahi’s quest to be All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, and not alleged injustice meted on the South-East by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has been blamed for his defection.
The Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, who made this assertion, said that committed members of the PDP were not surprised that Umahi, yesterday, formally defected to the APC, which he has for a while been fraternising with.
Wike said that ordinarily, he would not have been perturbed by Umahi’s decision to defect to the APC, but, he felt offended by his attempt to justify his decision on the purported injustice meted on the South-East by the PDP.
The Rivers State governor accused Umahi of being unfair to the PDP which gave him governorship ticket in 2015 against all odds, and repeated same feat in 2019.
He noted that while Umahi has a right to move to the APC, but for him to attempt to blackmail the PDP and paint it in a bad light was mischievous and unacceptable.
“My friend, Umahi wants to be president. There is no problem about that. You have a right to be president. Nobody can stop you. You are educated. You have been a governor for two terms, so, you are qualified to say ‘I want to be president of Nigeria’. But, that does not mean, that you have to blackmail your party, and tell lies to the people that you are leaving the party because of the injustice meted against the South-East, that is not correct.”
Wike, who demanded that Umahi should retract the statement that the PDP has not been fair to the South-East, argued that under the PDP, the South-East has produced Senate Presidents; National Vice Chairman of the PDP and Secretary to the Federal Government.
He said it was erroneous for Umahi to accuse PDP of injustice, when he had unilaterally imposed his younger brother as South-East zonal vice chairman of the PDP.
“In life, power is sweet, but conscience is important. It is most offensive and insulting for a man to lie against his party because of power”, Wike said.
The governor said though APC has not yet told Nigerians where it would zone its presidential ticket, Umahi’s presumptuous move might be too hasty and would ruin him politically.
According to him, assuming the APC decides to zone its presidential ticket to the South-East where the party has no formidable base, what is the guarantee that Umahi would secure the ticket?
“My reaction to Governor Umahi’s defection is not that he has no right to defect, but to say he is defecting because of injustice meted to the South-East, that is insulting to the South-East.”
The governor urged the National Working Committee (NWC) and the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the PDP to take decisive steps to ensure that PDP does not die in Ebonyi State.
Similarly, the Peoples Democratic Party, yesterday night, attributed the defection of Ebonyi State Governor, Engr Dave Umahi, from its fold to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to personal reasons.
The party had through its spokesman, Kola Ologbondiyan, earlier denied knowledge of the governor’s defection.
However, the PDP revised itself in a statement signed by Ologbondiyan, saying, “Our party thanks Governor Dave Umahi for the services rendered to the people of Ebonyi State, as the state chairman of Ebonyi PDP (2003 to 2007); deputy governor of Ebonyi State (2007 to 2015) and two-term governor of Ebonyi State (2015 till date), all elected on the platform of the PDP.
“As we wish Governor Umahi all the best in his adventure, we call on members of our party to remain calm and committed to the ideals of our party, as no individual is bigger than the PDP.”