TheNewsGuru

Tag: Governor Dave Umahi

  • APC: Ebonyi party chairman, Emegha assures Governor Umahi of winning senatorial seat

    APC: Ebonyi party chairman, Emegha assures Governor Umahi of winning senatorial seat

    Ebonyi state All Progressive Congress (APC) chairman, Stanley Okoro Emegha has said that he would do everything within his capacity to ensure that the Governor of the state, David Umahi wins the Ebonyi south senatorial seat in 2023.

    Emegha made this disclosure while addressing pressmen in Abakaliki the Ebonyi state capital on Thursday.

    He heaped praises on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for publishing the name of the governor David Umahi as the party’s authentic  senatorial candidate of the APC for Ebonyi south senatorial zone.

    “There was no time the excos of APC in Ebonyi were panicking about the releases of names of the candidates by INEC because we followed do processes. And as such, those that emerged were the people that the members of the party in their various wards, constituencies and senatorial districts voted for, to go and contest in the forthcoming general election, come 2023.

    “Since due processes were followed, we were not panicking about the commitment of the national leadership of APC to upload the names of those that emerged or that it will go the other way.

    “The governor’s name, David Umahi has finally been enlisted by INEC as the authentic senatorial candidate of APC in Ebonyi south zone. Some people said that the name of the governor was imputed through a Court order. Yes, what that simply means, is that the court mandated that the re-conduction of the Ebonyi south senatorial Primary election by APC that took place at Afikpo North LGA headquarters be obeyed, and that’s why INEC, noted that it is by court order.

    “Court ruled that the party should re-conduct that primary election, it was done and Umahi won. And so, we all can attest that such a ruling came, and we followed the due process. We obeyed that court order. We went back to the venue at the fixed date and re-conducted that election. He said

    Emegha also used the occassion to address the speculations making the rounds that the party used a different delegate list to conduct the re-run senatorial election in the state.

    Some contestants  were edged out as a result of the delegation list used for the re-run senatorial election.

    According to him: “It is not the national leadership of the APC that approves the delegate list. The only thing that the national leadership of APC does is to give you forms. The delegates were 3 by wards and 5 per local government area. When the form is given to you, you pay it directly to the national leadership of APC. The delegates didn’t purchase the form and then paid it to the state account, they paid it to the national account.

    “The national constituted a committee that came to Ebonyi and conducted the delegates’ election, and then the committee reported back to the national, those delegates that won during the congresses, were the names of people that the committee gave to us.

    “The allegation that we used a different delegate list, is false. Nobody can say that we used a different delegate list to conduct our primary election. The woman who is opposing the election, why didn’t she come? She backed out from the primary election of the APC, even when she knew that the court has ordered that Ebonyi south senatorial primary election be re-conducted.

    “She wanted to scuttle the Ebonyi south senatorial primary election by trying to get court injection but it didn’t work for her. And now, she is coming back to say that a different delegate list was used.

    “The court said that we should go and re-conducted the Ebonyi south senatorial primary election. It didn’t say ‘go and change the delegates list’. It wasn’t me that conducted the primary election, the national leadership of APC had to send the people that came and re-conducted the Ebonyi south senatorial zone primary election. The people that came to re-conduct the election, came with the delegates list” he stressed

  • You can’t appoint caretaker Cttees for Ebonyi LGAs, Court tells Umahi

    You can’t appoint caretaker Cttees for Ebonyi LGAs, Court tells Umahi

    A Federal High Court sitting in Abakaliki, the capital of Ebonyi State, has restrained the State Governor, David Umahi from appointing new caretaker committees to run the affairs of the 13 Local Government Areas in the State.

    Justice Fatun Riman in the suit No. FHC/AI/CS/151/2022, ruled that the INEC is not a rubber stamp agency and is not under any duty whatsoever to release the Register of Voters to Ebonyi State Independent National Electoral Commission for purposes of using same in the conduct of Local Government Elections in the 13 Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State.

    The trial judge also stated in his ruling that the tenure of office of Local Government Area Chairmen in Ebonyi State remains three (3) years and that the tenure of the current chairmen will expire in August, 2023.

    Also Read

    The Court judgement signed and issued to newsmen by the court registrar, Chigbu Stephen reads in a part, “That the tenure of office of Local Government Chairmen and Councilors in Ebonyi State is three years and that the tenure of the present crop of Chairmen and Councilors in Ebonyi State will expire in August, 2023.

    “That the 3rd defendant (Ebonyi State government) lacks the vires, authority, enablement etc to appoint Caretakers. Caretaker Committees and/or anybody or persons by whatsoever name or nomenclature called that are unelected democratically to run, manage, superintend, etc, the affairs of the 13 Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State.

    “That the Independent National Electoral Commission is not a rubber stamp agency and is not under any duty whatsoever to release the Register of Voters to Ebonyi State Independent National Electoral Commission for purposes of using same in the conduct of Local Government Elections in the 13 Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State, without availing the plaintiffs and members of the public with the extant Law or Laws, if any meant to regulate the said exercise.

    “That the Independent National Electoral Commission for itself, its agents, servants,workmen etc are restrained from releasing the Register of Voters in Ebonyi State to the Ebonyi State Government and Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission for purposes of using same for the proposed Local Government Elections in the 13 Local Government Areas of Ebonyi State, pending the release and publication of the extant Law, etc meant to regulate the conduct of the said exercise to the plaintiffs and members of the public.”

    Some citizens of the State; Otu Collins Eleri, Nelson Eze and three (3) others had dragged the Independent National electoral commission (INEC), the Ebonyi State Independent Electoral Commission (EBSIEC) and the Ebonyi State government to the Court, challenging the outcome of the local government election conducted on 30th July, 2022.

  • Umahi still in presidential race frame – Campaign Group

    The Governor Dave Umahi campaign organisation has debunked reports that he had stepped down from the presidential race.

    The campaign organisation made the clarification in a statement on Sunday.

    The organisation noted that Umahi, who is one of the aspirants seeking the APC presidential ticket remains solid in his aspiration.

    The statement was signed by Ebonyi State’s Commissioner for Information and State Orientation,  Orji Uchenna Orji.

    It noted that the news that Governor Umahi stepped down is fake and the handiwork of desperate and satanic politicians.

    ALSO READ: Ebonyi Governor, Dave Umahi, Tinubu meet in Abuja

     

    The statement read, “The attention of David Umahi Campaign Organisation has been drawn to a piece of circulating fake news propagated in media platforms purporting that the Presidential Hopeful and Governor of Ebonyi State, His Excellency Engr Chief David Nweze Umahi FNSE FNATE (Akubaraoha) has stepped down his Presidential Aspiration for His Excellency, Senator Ahmad Lawan, Senate President of Nigeria’s National Assembly.

    “Members of the public are enjoined to disregard the fake news as cheap blackmail and absolute falsehood by desperate politicians who are apprehensive of the acceptable political profile of the Governor of Ebonyi State and Presidential hopeful and whose track records have endeared him to the heart of the APC leadership.

    “Umahi never stepped down, but that  His Excellency Ahmad Lawan only returned a consultation visit previously accorded to him by  Governor Umahi and that both of them pledged to support each other in event of any of them emerging as the presidential candidate of APC.”

    TheNewsGuru.con reports that a statement from Ahmad Lawan’s media team, signed by Danladi Bako, had claimed Umahi restated his commitment to support Lawan’s quest to emerge as the APC presidential candidate at the primaries scheduled for tomorrow and Tuesday.

  • Insecurity in South-East, politically – motivated; Umahi says

    Insecurity in South-East, politically – motivated; Umahi says

    Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, has claimed that insecurity in the state and the South-East is politically-motivated.

    He stated this while appearing on Channels Television where he said insecurity worsened after he dumped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for All Progressives Congress (APC).

    Governor Umahi ruled out foreigners as the masterminds of insecurity in the geopolitical zone.

    The Governor argued that despite the poor security situation in the country, President Muhammadu Buhari has performed excellently.

    ALSO READ: 2023: Ebonyi Gov, Umahi tells Buhari why South East should produce next president

    To him, had Buhari not become President, insecurity situation in the country would have been worse.

    He said the Federal Government’s handling of the nation’s security challenges is excellent.

    The Governor who is a frontline aspirant into the office of president in 2023 under the All Progressives Congress, said in terms of naming all the indices that are needed to improve on what Buhari has done, he can be scored highly.

    In his words; “If it is in infrastructure, security, economy, and uniting Nigerians, I think God has helped him to do very well in each and every one of them.

    “Nigerians are very tired of political promises. They want to see evidence of what you have done. I have evidence of what I have done and I believe that what I have done could be replicated at the national level.

    “The security situation in the country, I have always told people that if we didn’t have the kind of President we have that is very humane and not vindictive, nobody knows where Nigeria would have been by now.

    “So, he has helped us tremendously in the security of the South-East. This thing started as a joke and today it is quite a big issue.”

    On the insecurity in the South-East, Umahi said, “In my state, there was a time that the insecurity was highly politically-motivated and the targets were Imo State, APC, and Ebonyi State the moment I defected. We did not have this large scale of insecurity until I defected.”

    He continued, “Well, you see, the security situation in the country, as I have always told people, that if we did not have the kind of President that is very humane and not vindictive, nobody knows where Nigeria would have been by now,” the APC presidential aspirant said.

    “So, he [Buhari] has helped us tremendously in the security of the South East.

    “What I call bandits are people that are engaged in violence and our people, South East people; the youths, some of them are also in this category,” Umahi added.

    “When people tend to say the insecurity in the southeast is imported, I don’t buy that because I am a governor and get security reports. We have arrested a number of these people and it should be about five or ten per cent of the people outside the South East.

    “So, you cannot say when you have up to 90 per cent of our youths that are engaged in this thing and you say we are being infiltrated by others.”

    TheNewsGuru.com reports that while the administration came into power in a 2015 campaign filled with insecurity rhetoric and how it would end incessant bombings in many parts of the country, many other security challenges have emerged since 2015 when it took over power.

    Analysts believe that thee security situation has worsened with new ones emerging on a regular basis in all parts of Nigeria.