By Adesina Soyooye
It is, almost, official now. The long held dream of Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, an Engineer, to defect to the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, has come true.
No less a person than Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State confirmed Governor Umahi’s defection from the PDP to the APC.
He spoke while on a visit to the National Headquarters of the Party where he had gone to confer with the leadership of the party.
In a couple of hours, he told Reporters after a closed door meeting, may be a couple of days, Umahi’s defection would become public. He said he would be happy to receive the Ebonyi State Governor into the PDP fold.
Gloating over Umahi’s defection, Uzodinma said it was a fulfillment of the promise he made to the APC that his governorship of Imo will change the negative perception the people of the Zone held of the APC. He, also, boasted that more South-east Governors would defect to the APC, saying that talks were going on.
Governor Uzodinma: “If you recall when I addressed you here a couple of months ago, I told you that the moment I resume office in Imo State as the Governor, that the impression, and the perception of our party in the South East will change, and the resultant effect will be that more credible individuals and Governors will even join the party.
“Today, I am being vindicated because we are hearing it, and I’m sure a few hours from now, we get a confirmation that one of our best, will be joining the party. And he is the Governor of Ebonyi State. I will be very glad, and it will be my joy to welcome a Governor, and more Governors, not only him. We are still talking to more Governors to join.
“APC is the ruling party, and for the interest of National integration, and cohesion, Imo and South-east, indeed, needs to become part and parcel of the ruling party to make the Nigeria project a complete project.”
Governor Umahi’s soon-to- be announced defection comes to political watchers as no surprise. For, at least, two years or more, many say, he has been a PDP member in name, and an APC member in talks and actions, and heart. He threatened to sack any of his appointees who dared criticise President Muhammadu Buhari, and in 2014, said he would vote for Buhari during the 2015 Presidential election. There is no confirmation, however, who he voted for.
Umahi was a Deputy Governor before he became the Governor of Ebonyi state, now serving his second time under the PDP.
Not a few people think he is leaving for the APC because of his 2023 ambition to run for either the office of the President or Vice President, an opportunity he seems to believe will not be offered to him in the PDP.
It is yet to be seen how the APC will prefer him to party members who have been with the party from day one.
The Ebonyi State Governor is the Chairman of the South east Governors’ Forum.
His defection would give the APC its second state in the Zone.
