Rivers Sate governor, Nyesom Wike has explained reasons Ebonyi state governor and chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum (SGF), Dave Umahi defected to the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Wike said his Ebonyi counterpart left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to pursue his presidential ambition.
Gov Umahi left PDP for APC in what has left a huge vacuum in the PDP considering the fact that he is the chairman of the Southeast Governors Forum (SGF) .
Reacting to this, Wike said Umahi left the party, not because injustice was meted to the southeast but because of his personal presidential bid.
He said that his defection did not come to PDP members as a surprise because the Ebonyi governor was already building a political romance with the ruling party over time. Governor Wike told Umahi to retrace the statement that he left PDP because of the injustice against the southeast region by the opposition party, saying he will not allow his “friend” to “blackmail and tell lies to people.”
“My friend, Umahi wants to be president. There is no problem with that. You have a right to be president. Nobody can stop you.”
According to him, the Ebonyi governor is an educated man who is serving his second term as governor and is therefore qualified to say he wants to be Nigeria’s president.
Meanwhile, just days after Governor Umahi informed the PDP of his plan to leave for the APC, one of his commissioners resigned. Ebonyi commissioner for intergovernmental affairs, Lazarus Ogbee, announced his resignation in a letter to the governor.
Another person who tendered his resignation was state’s APC publicity secretary, Chika Nwoba. Revealing the reason for his action, he said he cannot work with Umahi. He expressed gratitude to the APC and its leaders for finding him worthy to be elected to the position in 2018, at the age of 27.
