Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State is not plotting to return to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) stated this in a Friday statement, describing reports of the governor’s planned return as “fake”.
Mr Simbard Ogbuatu, the Public Relations Officer, APC in Ebonyi, who signed the statement in Abakaliki, advised APC members and supporters to disregard the news of the planned defection.
“The All Progressives Congress in Ebonyi has got the news making rounds the media with the headline, “Orji Kalu, Umahi in desperate move to return to PDP” credited to one Dr Isaac Nkole, a chieftain PDP in Abia.
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“The report quoted the chieftain as saying that Gov. Dave Umahi also wants to return to PDP.
“But, we wish to state boldly that Umahi has not, either in person, a representative or through a surrogate made and will never make any move to return to the ‘Social Club’ known as PDP,’’ Ogbuatu said.
According to him, Umahi is at home in APC as the leader of the party for more than one year and urged the public to disregard the news as `figment of imagination of the originator’.
He said that Umahi’s defection to APC was not done to achieve selfish enrichment but for greater good of Ebonyi and South-East zone.
“Umahi’s defection to the national party did not come to him as stupefaction, neither did he join for selfish enrichment.
“The defection is a well-thought movement decided in the greater interest of Ebonyi in particular and the South-East in general.
“His Excellency saw the need to toe the line of the former nationalists like late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, from the zone who had always believed in the politics of the centre”, he said..
Ogbuatu also said that Umahi defected to APC to join hands with President Muhammadu Buhari and other well-meaning Nigerians to take the country to the next level.
He said that under the Buhari administration every part of South East had benefitted from infrastructure development.