Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State has declared that he would never return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
His Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr Francis Nwaze, described the news making the rounds that Umahi is making contacts to return to PDP as fake.
Nwaze made the assertion in a statement on Friday in Abakaliki.
He noted that the publication that Umahi wants to return to PDP “is fabricated false report and should be disregarded”.
“The attention of Ebonyi State government has been drawn to a mischievous publication made in some sections of the media that Governor Umahi is making contacts to return to PDP.
“Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have bothered responding to the publication, but we have freely elected to make a few clarifications to save the public, especially users of Social Media.
Quoting the fake news, Nwaze said “the moves by Umahi to return to his former Party is due to the discovery that he was deceived into joining the APC.”
He said “First, I like to confirm that the statement is completely false, it is aimed at painting our Governor black and causing bad blood between him and the crew members of the next level train in Ebonyi State and Nigeria at large.
“It is worthy of note that the Governor made a landmark departure from the opposition political party out of personal conviction and freewill volition last year for the obvious irredeemable marginalization of Ndigbo.
“Let me state that the Governor has since moved on and has made the ruling APC his home, enjoying the full compliments of being a party at the centre, and does not need to even contemplate returning to PDP,” Nweze stated.
Also, the Ebonyi State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), described as fake, the news that Umahi, plans to return to PDP.
Mr Simbard Ogbuatu, the Public Relations Officer, APC in the state, in a statement on Friday in Abakaliki, advised APC members and supporters to discountenance the news.
“The All Progressives Congress in Ebonyi has got the news making rounds the media with the headline, “Orji Kalu, Umahi in desperate move to return to PDP” credited to one Dr Isaac Nkole, a chieftain PDP in Abia.
“The report quoted the chieftain as saying that Governor Dave Umahi also wants to return to PDP.
“But, we wish to state boldly that Umahi has not, either in person, a representative or through a surrogate made and will never make any move to return to the ‘Social Club’ known as PDP,’’ Ogbuatu said.
According to him, Umahi is at home in APC as the leader of the party for more than one year and urged the public to disregard the news as `figment of imagination of the originator’.
He said that Umahi’s defection to APC was not done to achieve selfish enrichment but for greater good of Ebonyi and South-East zone.
“Umahi’s defection to the national party did not come to him as stupefaction, neither did he join for selfish enrichment.
“The defection is a well-thought movement decided in the greater interest of Ebonyi in particular and the South-East in general.
“His Excellency saw the need to toe the line of the former nationalists like late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, from the zone who had always believed in the politics of the centre”, he said.
Ogbuatu also said that Umahi defected to APC to join hands with President Muhammadu Buhari and other well-meaning Nigerians to take the country to the next level.
He said that under the Buhari administration every part of South East had benefitted from infrastructure development.
