Ebonyi PDP knocks Umahi over senatorial successor

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has come under fire from the Peoples Democratic Party’s South Zone chapter in Ebonyi State for blatantly asserting that he alone will decide who will follow him in the Senate.

It was deemed absurd for the state’s outgoing governor to return and assert he will elect his replacement in the Red Chamber after unilaterally “abandoning” the position to accept a ministerial job without engaging the residents of Ebonyi South Zone.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Augustine Nwazunku, the state PDP chapter chairman, said Umahi should apologize for making such an ominous remark.

Prior to his resignation as a result of being appointed minister by President Bola Tinubu, Umahi served as a senator for the Ebonyi South District.

Umahi officially stated, “I have the right to choose who will succeed me,” on September 9 during a courtesy call to Francis Nwifuru, the governor of Ebonyi State.

However, the PDP highlighted in a statement that it had “been made aware of the frightening assertion attributed to the Minister of Works, Engr David Umahi, that he (Umahi) has the power to appoint his replacement in the Senate.

“We hereby assert that the Minister’s statement was completely inappropriate for a man of his standing. Given that Chief Umahi, who served as governor of Ebonyi State from 2015 to 2023, was controversially elected to the Senate, he unilaterally left that position in order to pursue a ministerial job without consulting his Ebonyi South Senatorial District voters.

It is quite foolish of him to return now and make such an absurd and anti-democratic claim that he ought to be permitted to select his Senate replacement.

“First and foremost, we anticipated that an intelligent man like Umahi would be aware that the Election Petitions Tribunal’s ruling on the petitions filed by his rivals in the Senate elections of February 2023 was not the final word on his contentious election to the Senate.

Sen. Mike Nnechi (PDP) and Hon. Linus Okorie, two of his rivals, have expressed interest in appealing the Tribunal’s decision. Re-run elections or bye-elections wouldn’t be brought up until after the legal concerns were resolved, depending on how the case turned out.

The minister was charged with abuse of authority, and the party added that this was typical of his illegal behavior.

“For Umahi to have jumped the gun by piling up pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to begin preparations for new elections in the Ebonyi South Senatorial District is a clear case of impunity and arrogant/reckless abuse of power, further benchmarking Umahi’s usual acts of impudence and lawlessness,” it was stated in the statement.

“The people of the Ebonyi South Senatorial District have the sovereign right to select the individuals who will serve as their representatives in the National Assembly. Umahi has no authority to force his way through as he once did when he was the governor of Ebonyi State in the specific situation of the current Ebonyi South Senatorial District.

“Umahi should focus on his duties as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Minister of Works and keep his distance from matters pertaining to the Ebonyi South Senatorial District after he gave up the contentious mandate he had initially taken up.”