USA Africa Dialogue Series - PDP Governorship Candidate Declares: I Am Contesting Because “It Is My Turn To Chop”

PDP Governorship Candidate Declares: I Am Contesting Because "It Is My Turn To Chop"

by Jerrywright Ukwu

Naij.com / 2015-03-07 12:07

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Ebonyi state, Engineer David Umahi, has raised eyebrows with a recent comment he made concerning his aspiration to lead the South East state.

Umahi, who is the current deputy governor of Ebonyi state, was addressing newsmen in the state capital, Abakaliki, when he told newsmen that his determination to succeed his boss was because it was his "turn to chop"

He said, "Anybody that is saying I should have surrendered is just making a prayer for himself because how would I have suffered for the party, how would I have invested, and you say I no go chop? E no good. They say na where somebody dey work, na there e dey chop; that's why they call it workshop," said the deputy governor,

The  comment drew a noisy reaction from the audience made up of mainly PDP supporters and journalists.

Umahi is having a running battle with his boss, Governor Martin Elechi, over his emergence as the PDP gubernatorial candidate in the state.

It will be recalled that Governor Elechi's candidate for the party's primary election was the former minister of health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu. After Umahi emerged as the PDP candidate for the elections, Elechi moved to the Labour Party (LP) but surprisingly gave the party's ticket to another politician, Edward Nkwegu.

Umahi  questioned if Elechi really and sincerely wanted to hand power over to Prof Chukwu or actually wanted power to shift to Ebonyi South, insisting that the governor should have at least given the governorship ticket of the Labour Party, which he accused him of secretly supporting, to Chukwu rather than to Edward Nkwegu.

"The question I'm asking is did he really want to hand over power to the South? Otherwise, why didn't he give the governorship ticket of Labour Party to Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, and then my brother and myself would have gone into negotiation?" he asked.

 

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