Ebonyi Govt berates groups over media attacks on Umahi

From Chinedu Nwafor, Abakaliki,

The Government of Ebonyi State on Thursday berated some groups which it described as political hirelings for attacking Governor David Umahi, saying their attacks were products of ill will and malevolence that came as a political lashback on the Governor for championing the cause of national unity and South East mainstreaming in national politics, especially his avowed commitment to the victory of APC in the 2023  Presidential Election.

A statement signed by the State Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, Barrister Uchenna Orji, accused the groups whom he described as the political jobbers, of being idly engrossed with sponsored motives of fabricating falsehood against Governor Umahi with view to undermining his soaring leadership hallmarks celebrated across the nation, especially his landmark achievements as the Governor of Ebonyi State in the last seven  years.

Governor Umahi while speaking on the outcome of the recent presidential primaries of the two major political parties in Nigeria ahead of the 2023 general elections, disowned the Ohanaeze Ndigbo President general, Professor George Obiozor, who he said failed to play any role in the struggle for Nigeria President of igbo extraction during the just concluded Presidential primaries of political parties.

The Governor also said that Ebonyi People won’t vote for the Presidential candidate of Labour Party,Mr Peter Obi, but that of the APC, Bola Tinubu. Sequel to Umahi’s outburst, many groups and persons have launched media attacks on him.

But the State Commissioner for Information, Orji, said while reacting to some they of the media publications, said, the President of the Association of Ebonyi Indigenes in Diaspora, Pascal Oluchukwu,  “in one of the series of his infamous, disrespectful and unfounded fabrications calculated at running down on the person and policies of the Governor of Ebonyi State for not conforming with his clannish and divisive entreaties in his  native community in Ebonyi State where he has  been declared wanted by security agencies for his complicity in violent crimes and killings in the area.

“Since then, the said  *Pascal Oluchukwu* has been operating fugitively and concocting   melancholic and  mendacious fictions against the person of the Governor and the institution he represents. The false political narratives  chronicled in the publication of *Pascal Oluchukwu* shows that the great achievements of *Governor Umahi* has become an albatross of Pascal Chukwu that  prevents him from living a normal life. I must say that the government and good people of Ebonyi State have no time for a Yahoo boy whose livelihood is full of scam.”

On the publication by the President of Ohanaeze Youth Council, Orji said, “Igboayaka O. Igboayaka is nothing but a clueless propaganda politically calculated to defraud the  collective sensibilities of the gullible public on the actual state of  security in Anambra State or any part whatsoever in South East.The uncoordinated narrative of his records of killings and unconscionable reeling of unfounded security reports  indicting  SARS involvement in extra- judicial killings is as strange as a tale  imaginatively recounted to curry cheap sympathy in desperation for  political actualizations.

“It must be mentioned that Ebonyi State Government knows nothing about his rhetorics about the said crimes allegedly committed between 2004 and 2013 as the stories have no nexus with any incident of security breaches in any part of Ebonyi State or South East  in the life of the Umahi administration.

“In his high sense of mischief and falsehood the said  *Igboayaka O. Igboayaka,* tried to pinch our dear Governor against the person of *His Excellency* *Mr Peter Obi,* a Presidential candidate of Labour Party over the clear stand of Ebonyi State on the Political Platform of her choice. It is inviolately factual that Ebonyi State under Governor Umahi is APC solid and shall not leave any stone unturned in delivering Ebonyi State to APC come 2023.

“We have no personal matter with *Mr Peter Obi.* He is a friend of our dear Governor. If he were a candidate of our great Party, the APC we would have still been under obligation to vote for him. We can neither be  cowed nor brainwashed  into going to the dark age of senseless and  fruitless tribal partisan alignment. We have moved to the party at the centre under the  political principle of Umahism which is a resonation of Zikism, the Pan African model of modern nationalism.

“It is foolhardy, absolutely reprehensible  and most unconscionable for the said Igboayaka to attempt  to find fault in the clear stand of the Governor and the people of Ebonyi State over our preference for APC.

 “We take exception to the blackmail of Labour revolution in South East,  the linking of the  activities of IPOB under *Mr Simon Ekpa* with our dear Governor. The Governor remains the strongest voice in the battle against banditry and violent agitations in the South East. We would rather hold that from Igboayaka’s indept knowledge of the groupings and inclinations of the  ringleaders of violent agitations and banditry in South East, he should submit himself for security surveillance.

“For the records, Governor Umahi never made any  allusion to the person of *Mr  Peter Obi* or reference to his candidacy when he said that the people of Ebonyi State will vote APC  This  decision to continue to build bridges is an irreversible conviction by the people of Ebonyi State, borne out of the need to take our destiny into our hands in our commitment to nation building as this is  our sacrifice in launching South East to the mainstream of national governance.

“There is no going back in the stand of Ebonyi State on  the ineffectiveness and insensitiveness of the leadership of  Ohaneze Ndigbo over  galvanizing advocacies for South East Presidency when it mattered most. It is not about Governor Umahi;it is about the sons  and daughters of South East who were jilted by their people for a porridge of yam; it is about the failure of Ohaneze Ndigbo to galvanize the opinions of prominent Nigerians who spoke for fairness and justice to South East, whereas  the leadership of Ohaneze Ndigbo went into hiding  in honour of those who pay the piper from South East.

On the allegation that Ebonyi State Government disbursed N400million COVID-19 funds  for  personal estate development of officials of the three arms of government in the State, Orji said, “We are also not unaware of the mischief  sought to be created  by the publication made  online in  Prestige News and other online platforms by  *Yusuf Kabir.* The allegation contained in the said publication is weighty as it is empty. The State Government never spent any COVID-19 grant(s) on any of such investments as blindly posited  by these enemies of  progress.”

“Ebonyi State Government in furtherance of her welfare Programmes  and in the  implementation of the outcome of the Citizens’/Stakeholders Consultative Meeting on the 2020 revised budget (effected as a response to the scourge of COVID-19) made welfare policies to different Stakeholders including, granting of facilities, taxes rebates, tax holidays and other forms of palliatives.

“The welfare funds  which is a  semblance of the Civil Servants N3billion Agricultural empowerment scheme earlier disbursed by the State Government before the advent of COVID-19 in 2020 is a welfare facility drawn from the State Government budgeted funds. It will be recalled that there had been similar welfare Programmes like that given as empowerment to the people of Ebonyi State. For the avoidance of doubt, the housing facility to the Public Office holders ( Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary) was never sourced or released from COVID-19 grants or contributions.

“We have taken time to make these clarifications because of those whose thoughts must have been swindled by the antics of these political marauders. Ebonyi  is one of the foremost States in prudency, transparency, probity and accountability in Nigeria. That is the secret of our rising performance index and the numerous SFTAS and Media awards.

“Members of the public are enjoined to discountenance the antics of these frustrated  politicians and their chronies as their falsehood and deliberate attacks on the honest and germane views of our dear Governor on national issues  is nothing but a sign of helpless frustrations,” Mr Orji added.