‘This Is Satanic Blackmail’ – Umahi Denies Withdrawing N6.7bn From Ebonyi Treasury To Fund Court Case

Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, has described allegations of N6.7 billion embezzlement levelled against him in a petition before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as “satanic blackmail”.

Umahi said the petition filed by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not only “irresponsibly false” but a calculated attempt to damage his reputation and distract his administration.

THE WHISTLER earlier reported that the PDP, in the petition filed on its behalf by its lawyer, Bart. Nkemakolam Okoro, accused Umahi of withdrawing the sum from five bank accounts of the state to fund the legal cost of the appeal against his recent sacking by the Federal High Court, Abuja.

Okoro had told our correspondent that details of how Governor Umahi allegedly made the huge withdrawal was divulged to his client by civil servants involved in it.

But reacting in a statement emailed to THE WHISTLER on Wednesday, Governor Umahi said the allegation is “unfounded, cruel and malicious”.

The statement signed by the state’s Commissioner for Information, Uchenna Orji, reads: “We rebuke the allegations of ‘looting of Ebonyi State Government’s money’ made by People’s Democratic Party, PDP against our transparent administration as a satanic blackmail that has no iota of truth, desperately calculated to attract the attention of the gullible and sully the reputation of the Governor of the State and which we shall not hesitate in invoking legal actions to bring the petitioners to justice.

“Ebonyi State Government’s expenditure is in the public domain, and there is no doubt that Governor Umahi’s administration has been adjudged to be one of the most transparent, judicious, prudent and corrupt-free administrations in Nigeria.

“Further in this regard, Ebonyi State Government is requesting the State House of Assembly to waive its constitutional immunity and request Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to within 30 days, investigate all the issues in the allegations contained in the petition by PDP and any other allegation of financial impropriety raised by them and to please cause necessary sanctions against the petitioners for false and fake information if their allegations are not established.

“We must note that we are aware of the sponsors of this heinous petition, particularly Sen. Anyim Pius Anyim and we shall soon expose his complicity in these senseless fabrications. We have not forgotten his usual style of fight against a siting (sic) Governor in his State; we have not forgotten his history and cases of massive financial misappropriation and wrecking of national treasury and his land grabbing commitments in parts of the Country including grabbing of thousands of acres of land at the Centenary City, belonging to Federal Government some of which are under serious investigation by EFCC and other Anti- graft agencies. We are fully aware of the unprofessional conduct and ambulance chasing character of his surrogate who authored this petition on behalf of PDP . We know that he has been in the business of unprofessional conduct and dirty dealings and we assure him that we shall deal conclusively with this unfounded allegations to further expose his professional impropriety

“Members of the public are please enjoined to discountenance this trending petition as one of the series of lies from the forces who are intimidated by the rising and acceptable performance credentials of Governor Umahi.”