Mixed reactions have continued to trail the defection of Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Umahi announced his defection to APC on Tuesday. The Ebonyi State caucus in the National Assembly has faulted Umahi’s decision to decamp to APC.
Briefing newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, the chairman of the caucus and former governor of Ebonyi State, Senator Sam Egwu, said though Umahi has the right to join any political party of his choice, the reasons he advanced for his deflection were unwise.
He argued that the governor should be the last person to defect having benefited immensely from PDP.
Egwu said: “The major reason given by Chief Umahi for defecting from the PDP to the APC is now in the public domain, which is that the PDP has not been fair to the people of the South-east on the issue of zoning the presidency and vice presidency.
“While we support that it is the turn of the South-east to fly the presidential flag of any of the major political parties come 2023, yet we consider it impolitic, indecent and unwise to give ultimatums and conditionalities in a bid to secure zoning.”
Egwu, however, assured that not a single member of the Ebonyi State PDP caucus of the National Assembly would defect to APC.
However, a northern group under the auspices of the North East Professionals Network (NEPN) has said the defection of Umahi to APC will benefit the region politically.
The group’s coordinator, Alhaji Mohammed Yusuf, said Mr Umahi has displayed uncommon courage to take Ebonyi and the South-east into the mainstream politics of the nation.
According to him, it will only take a man of courage and vision to accomplish such an unprecedented feat since the return of democracy to Nigeria in 1999.
