Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has revealed how his family members conspired against him to support the Labour Party instead of his party, APC, claiming that Nigerians did not vote for the former’s presidential candidate Peter Obi.
Umahi described the more than six million votes the Labour Party presidential standard-bearer got during the February 25 election as “protest votes.”
A protest vote is considered a vote against the party or candidate people usually support to show disapproval.
The Ebonyi governor stated this on Channels TV Monday night monitored by our correspondent.
“I see Labour Party’s votes as a kind of protest votes against my party, against the PDP. That’s the way I see it,” Mr Umahi pointed out. “Let me tell you that the religious leaders in my state were totally for the Labour Party movement. That’s why I saw it as a protest vote. It wasn’t a vote for His Excellency Obi as such. It wasn’t.”
The Ebonyi governor stated that “it was very surprising that Mr President could lose his state (Katsina)” in the presidential election, including Bola Tinubu in Lagos.
Despite all his efforts to cripple the chances of the Labour Party, Mr Umahi said even his family members worked against APC to support Labour.
“In all honesty, I didn’t give a chance to Labour Party to win any election in my state. I was very surprised,” stated the governor. “Even in my family, there was conspiracy against me, and I didn’t know that they were going to vote for the Labour Party in the presidential election, but in the other elections, it is APC because of what we have done.”
Tinubu was eventually declared the winner of the election. His main contenders, Atiku Abubakar and Mr Obi, came second and third, respectively.
The president-elect’s victory is now a matter of litigation at the presidential election petitions tribunal.
