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Umahi refutes alleged plans to dump PDP

By Nnamdi Akpa (Abakaliki) and Inemesit Akpan-Nsoh (Uyo)
14 March 2019   |   3:44 am
Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi yesterday refuted defeated All Progressives Congress (APC)’s candidate, Sonni Ogbuoji’s claim that he (Umahi) has perfected plans to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for APC, describing it as baseless.

David Umahi of Ebonyi State.

• Kinsmen accuse Akpabio of causing chaos during polls
Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi yesterday refuted defeated All Progressives Congress (APC)’s candidate, Sonni Ogbuoji’s claim that he (Umahi) has perfected plans to leave the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for APC, describing it as baseless.

Speaking in a statement issued by his Chief Press Secretary, Emmanuel Uzor, the governor said Ogbuoji’s statement does make sense, insisting that defecting to the APC was not in the cards. Ogbuoji had in a statement said he lost the governorship election because Umahi has perfected plans to join APC, which affected his chances of winning.

Uzor said Ogbuoji’s claim was unfounded and misleading, adding that the APC candidate was acting in frustration and that Umahi’s victory had disorganised him.His words: “Rather than accept defeat, Ogbuoji has taken his campaign propaganda beyond the state to Enugu where he briefed the media.

“There is no move by Umahi to leave PDP. Is it now that he has nurtured the party in the South East, except Anambra, which we hope to capture in 2022 when election will be conducted there, that he will leave PDP? He asked.“The governor had stood with the PDP right from the time he became its Chairman. People should disregard the information, it is not true.”

Meanwhile, the people of Essien Udim Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have accused Senator Godswill Akpabio of causing chaos in the area during the just concluded governorship and state Assembly elections.Led by his cousin and the State Commissioner for Economic Planning, Ukpong Akpabio, they alleged that Senator Akpabio caused bodily harm to many of his kinsmen by ordering security to beat or arrest most of those he suspected were not in support of APC.

The youths and women group, elders and market women thronged the state secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) with over 50 buses during a media briefing at Uyo. They said Essien Udim people condemn the electoral offenses and irregularities perpetrated by Senator Akpabio and his cohorts for which the entire election process in the area was almost marred by militarisation, rigging and assault on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officers.

In a communiqué read by Imo-Owo Okpokpo, they said, “Akpabio was complicit in the carting away of electoral materials and INEC ad-hoc staff in all units of the 11 wards in the area, assisted by military men with armored vehicles to Ibanga Akpabio’s residence.”

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