8th November, 2020
By Chukwuemeka Opara
Confusion has persisted over alleged plan by Governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi to defect from Peoples Democratic Party, PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Governor himself has not spoken on the alleged plan to abandon the party on which platform he contested and was elected twice as governor for the APC.
Nevertheless, APC leaders in the State have been rejoicing about the coming big catch since the rumour of the defection started circulating in Ebonyi.
The rumour was that the Governor who is in his second term of office was planning to defect the ruling APC as part of plans to actualize his 2023 presidential ambition.
But when queried about the alleged plan of his boss to dump PDP on Sunday, Mr Uchenna Orji, Ebonyi Commissioner for Information and Orientation said that only Gov. Umahi can speak about his next political sojourn.
Orji told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that ‘it was better to get to the bridge first before thinking on how to cross it’.
“What is important is that we enjoy good governance in Ebonyi but it will be better to hear from the horse’s mouth because I am not the horse” he said.
On the contrary, NAN reports that Sen. Julius Ucha, an APC Leader in Ebonyi on Sunday declared that Gov. Umahi is actually on his way to join the party from the PDP.
Ucha, the Former Senator representing Ebonyi Central zone at the National Assembly and presently a member of the National Assembly Service Commission, disclosed this during the party’s stakeholders meeting in Abakaliki.
The former Speaker of the Ebonyi House of Assembly and an APC Gubernatorial Candidate said the matter had been concluded at the appropriate quarters and was no longer a joke.
“This will ensure that for the first time, APC will be in control of governance in the state and will make the governors of other south east states to declare for the party.
“I told President Muhammadu Buhari during his visit to the state in 2017 that governors are very powerful individuals who could not be ignored in any way.
“We should continue praying that nothing stops this move because the world’s greatest wireless connection is prayer,” he said.
He urged the party faithful to unite in actualising the objective noting factionalisation will be detrimental to the cause.
“The struggle for party leadership does not make sense as I have been struggling since I left the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP).
“The struggles in most cases have been in vain and I will not continue to struggle or be interested in factions.
“Party faithful should also ensure they register in the forthcoming party’s registration exercise because ‘overtaking’ is allowed in party affairs,” he said.
Sen. Anthony Agbo, former Senator representing Ebonyi North zone at the National Assembly also declared that APC in the state had made a ‘big catch’ with the governor’s intending move to the party.
“This also implies that the party in the south east has made a big catch and the party in Nigeria- making possibly, the biggest catch with the intended move.
“We, the APC leaders, are presently making the move public as the governor has excelled in infrastructural transformation among other sectors of governance.
According to NAN, the state’s political sphere has been dominated by the reports of Umahi’s defection to the APC but the governor recently said that he was still a member of the PDP