Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi, on Tuesday, said he remained an “unshakably member of the Peoples Democratic Party.”
He denied media reports linking him to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
The PDP Governors Forum also on Tuesday said it was incorrect that Umahi belongs to both the PDP and the APC.
Umahi, a PDP governor, was reported to have, while hosting the people of Ishielu and Onicha Local Government Areas, said he belonged to both the APC and the PDP.
He was said to have made the comment while warning members of the PDP, that were planning to defect to the APC.
He was quoted to have said, “Stay in one place. Don’t run from here to here and from there to here. E no make sense. If you say you dey there (APC), know I am already there. If you go to APC, I am an APC member. If you go to the PDP, I am there.
“I am the only person that does anti-party and nothing will happen.
“Any other person that does anti-party is gone. So, I am representing you in the APC while you all stay in the PDP. If you like, go and write it on social media.”
But Umahi, while debunking the reports, said he was misquoted as there was no way he could have made such a statement.
The governor spoke through the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Uchenna Orji, who released a statement on the issue.
Orji said the governor was misrepresented by some mischief makers who he claimed were hiding under partisan politics to malign him for selfish reasons.
The statement read, “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 the PDP and the 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 party member in Nigeria can belong to another political party at a time.
“The governor never said that he belongs to the APC.
“He is unshakably, a PDP chieftain and has been a great party man, whose track records as historic state party chairman and currently the PDP governor and leader in Ebonyi State are known and admired by people of good will.
“The governor only said in the course of his speech 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 colorations including the APC know the virtues of his administration.”
Meanwhile, the PDP Governors Forum on Tuesday said it was incorrect that “Umahi belongs to both the PDP and the APC.”
The Director-General, PDP Governors’ Forum, Mr Osaro Onaiwu, in a statement said Umahi was misquoted.
He explained that the statement credited to the governor was a blatant falsehood packaged to tarnish the governor’s image and put a smile on the faces of the sponsors and authors of the publication.
Onaiwu said, “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 at the end of his current service, 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.”
