Umahi Remains Our Bona-fide Member – PDP Govs

BY EDMOND ODOK, ABUJA – The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors’ Forum has dismissed as ‘fake news’ claims that Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State belongs to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“We wish to emphatically state that Governor Umahi is 100 per cent and above dedicated to the PDP”, the Forum declared amidst reports of alleged claims by the Ebonyi Chef Executive’s that he can get away with anti-party activities.

According to the Forum, reports making rounds to the contrary is “blatant falsehood aimed at tarnishing the image of the governor and as well derailing him from his focus.”

In a statement on Tuesday by its Director General, Earl Osaro Onaiwu, the opposition Party Governors Forum said: “The author of that publication acted in bad fate, with malice and certainly with ulterior and sinister motives.

“On several occasions and at all times even in the face of stiff opposition and blackmail, Governor Umahi has always proven to be a committed party man.

“He loves the party; he loves the PDP Governors Forum, and they in turn love and cherish the friendship and bond between them.”

Attributing the insinuations to the politics of 2023 general electrons, the Statement further said: “It is, therefore, no gainsaying that all this is about 2023, but may we hasten to add that there are more civilised and cultured ways to go about it.

“Yes, he, like every other key-player in the political arena, may have his ambitions and dreams upon the end of his current service tenure in 2023; he may aspire for any of the offices at the Presidential Villa, which of course he is constitutionally fit and qualified for, but that will certainly be on the platform of the PDP.”

The Forum insisted that the PDP has “enough reasons and instances to believe that he may have been quoted out of context in the now-viral online publication. We smell mischief”, adding that; “We see the handiwork of detractors who are too scared of his credentials and constantly growing legacies so far attained in governance in Ebonyi.

“We perceive falsehood from the pit of hell taken too far by those who are envious of the numerous gigantic projects his administration is handling; detractors who hate the fact that in the past four going to five years, Ebonyi how now become a huge construction site for infrastructural development too numerous to mention.

“Finally, we wish to emphatically state that Governor Umahi is 100 per cent and above dedicated to the PDP.

“We can boldly say that he has never and will never indulge in the profanity of playing double standards, not with a party like PDP which he holds dear to his heart.

“He is and will always remain a revered apostle of anti-party activities.”

Similarly, the state government has also denied the report, insisting that Governor Umahi merely cautioned those who were in the habit of defecting from one political to another to be assured that he has friends and goodwill across political divides in the country.

Speaking through the Commissioner for Information, Mr Uchenna Orji, the State government described Governor Umahi as a firm believer in inclusive politics, ssying: “In their desperate attempt to cause disaffection against the state government, they mischievously misrepresented the governor as saying: ‘I am the only Governor that belongs to PDP and APC.’

“This blackmail is nothing but a cheap and childish fabrication that is irritably displeasing to the sensibilities of the ordinary man.

“It is a common sense that no one party member in Nigeria can belong to another political party at a time.

“The Governor never said that he belongs to APC. He is unshakably a PDP Chieftain and has been a great party man, whose track records as historic state party chairman and currently PDP Governor and leader in Ebonyi State are known and admired by people of goodwill.

“He only said that those who are in the habit of hiding under partisan politics to peddle lies against the state government were on a frolic of their own as people of different political colourations, including APC know the virtues of his administration.”

The current controversy arose from a statement credited to the governor when he received in audience the people of Ishielu and Onicha Local Government Areas who paid him Christmas homage.

He had enjoined them to stop” jumping from here and there” because they might be caught in anti-party activity web.