Chairman of South East Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi, has said that he is under intense pressure to support President Muhammadu Buhari, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 16 polls.
According to a statement during the weekend by the Chairman, Strategy Committee of Divine Mandate, Umahi’s campaign organisation, Chief Emmanuel Igwe, APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and the Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi are leading the pressure to get the governor support President Buhari’s reelection bid.
However, he said all Governor Umahi asked of President Buhari is to allow free, fair and credible election in the state.
He said that Umahi, as a mark of respect for the president, had promised to mobilise 2000 PDP members to come out and receive the president during his campaign stopover in Abakaliki, the state capital, this week.
His words: “The governor wishes Buhari and his entourage a happy stay as APC Presidential Campaign Council visits Ebonyi on the 30th of January, 2019.
“Governor Umahi wishes to put it on record that the President, Muhammad Buhari is his personal friend and a friend of the state. He has much respect for the office of the president.
“The Governor has been under pressure to support the re-election of my president by APC bigwigs especially the party chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Chibuike Amaechi just to mention but a few who come under various guises that the APC has no interest in Ebonyi guber race.
“The Governor has no need for external forces to win convincingly in Ebonyi since over 95 per cent of the electorate is supporting his re-election.
“The Governor has been too magnanimous to the APC by donating the sum of five million naira to her guber candidate, Senator Sonni Ogbuoji to enable him print campaign posters and promised to mobilize two thousand people that will welcome Mr President on the proposed campaign rally,” Igwe stated.
Warning that Ebonyi people will resist any form of manipulation or rigging and intimidation with the last drop of their blood, Umahi urged the APC presidential campaign council to make out time and inspect both completed and ongoing projects in the state during their campaign tour.
