Southeast PDP Decries Gov Umahi’s Threat Of Violence

The acting national vice chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Southeast, Chief Ali Odefa, says the allegations made by Gov Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State that prominent people of the state were engaging cultists and IPOB members to make the state ungovernable were unfounded.

Odefa stated this, Monday, when he addressed the press in Enugu. According to him, “It is worrisome that a governor of a state who is the chief security officer of the state will blatantly threaten that ‘lives’ of citizens of his own state ‘will be lost’, even when there is no aggression to suggest a war in the state.

“We at the PDP particularly note with serious concerns the specific listing of our party leaders, including their excellencies Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, former Senate president; Senator Sam Ominyi Egwu, former governor of Ebonyi State; Senator Obinna Ogba, Hon Ali Odefa, the national vice chairman, Southeast of the PDP, and many other leaders of our party whom, by governor Umahi’s utterances, he may have already marked for attacks in Ebonyi State.”

Describing Umahi’s allegation as baseless, Odefa said, “There is no political crisis in Ebonyi State; there is no immediate election contest in Ebonyi State; in fact, there is no situation that warrants the kind of threat he issued in Ebonyi State. It is a common knowledge that Governor Umahi and his family remain the major beneficiaries of the support of the PDP, and these same PDP leaders whom he has suddenly branded promoters of cultists in Ebonyi—each of these leaders played prominent roles in making Umahi a successful politician and governor of Ebonyi State.

“In Ebonyi State, the residents know exactly those who promote cultism; it is important to bring to the notice of the public that in the last few months, some key officials of Governor Umahi’s government have been involved in murder cases in Ebonyi State, and are currently in detention. While one is still being investigated by the police, the second one is already being tried in the court.

“Chief Umahi, until he jumped ship to the APC, became everything he is in Ebonyi cum Nigeria politics in the PDP, while his two brothers, Mr Austin Umahi and Maxwell Umahi, were zonal chairman and deputy state chairman of the PDP respectively.

“The question the world should be asking Umahi is at what point did he realize that I, Chief Ali Odefa, and other leaders he so maligned with his baseless allegation were promoters of IPOB and cultists? Could it have been in 2007 when I started working closely with him, first as special assistant while he was the chairman of the PDP, Ebonyi State, or during the well-known struggle to make him a governor in 2014/2015 election season?”

Odefa said Umahi was embarking on ‘political witch-hunt in Ebonyi State’, and solely targeting PDP leaders in the state. In his words, “It is important to let the entire world and specifically, Governor Umahi know that the PDP has since moved on, after his lone wolf decamping from our great party to his new party, the APC. We happily urge him to move on and focus on playing his politics in the APC. It is not possible for him to be in the APC and run the affairs of the PDP in Ebonyi State. We will deploy every legal arsenal to protect the sovereignty of our party from meddlesome interlopers.

“The PDP is a firm believer in the freedom of choice of individuals. We, therefore, urge Governor Umahi to live and let live in Ebonyi State, as we strongly call on him to abandon his evil plans of labelling our supporters ‘cultists’ and ‘IPOB’ as a bait to incite security agencies against our members.”

Odefa, in the address, called on security agencies to protect the lives of the people of Ebonyi State, especially ‘these prominent Nigerians with track records of patriotic service to the Nigerian nation and Ebonyi State in particular’.