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Governor Nyesom Wike of River State has faulted the claim by his counterpart in Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi who said he left the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) because of injustice in the part.
Governor Umahi had left the PDP for the All Progressive Congress (APC), citing injustice done to the South-East by the PDP since 1998 as his reason for leaving the opposition party.
Reacting on a Channels TV programme, ‘Politics Today’ on Wednesday, Wike said the Ebony Governor’s statement was an indication that he had been working with the APC.
Recounting the many leadership positions Umahi had enjoyed under the platform of the PDP even as deputy governor and his first term as governor of the state, the Rivers Governor wondered why the Ebonyi Governor did not cry injustice until his second term in office.
“If he has not been working with the APC, how will he know there is more room for consultation in APC than in PDP? The point remains that Umahi knows and I challenge him to a debate and I will tell him I am not saying that he shouldn’t be a president. Nobody is God to say who will be President and who will not be President. It is God. “But the point everybody is making is ‘when did you consult Ohanaeze Ndigbo?’ ‘When did you consult the leadership of the South-East Peoples Democratic Party?” said Wike.
“This so-called injustice you are talking about; you were chairman of the party under PDP – there was no injustice. You were deputy governor under the party – there was no injustice. You were governor for four years before, there was no injustice.
“Now you are a second-term governor, you are realizing there is injustice for the presidency. Has PDP come out to say we are zoning Presidency to A or B for you now to say, ‘Yes, having done this against my people I will go here because these people have zoned it to us. Since they have zoned it to us, I will move to that place (party) because I am a man that wants to fight for my people. So, on what basis can you now say there is injustice?”
The Rivers Governor who was clearly unhappy with Umahi’s defection, challenged him to a debate over the reasons he gave for defecting from the PDP to the ruling APC.
