Ebonyi South Senatorial candidate of the Labour Party(LP), Hon. Linus Okorie, has said that the outgoing Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi was not qualified and competent to occupy the office of the President of the Senate.

In a statement issued in Abakaliki, Okorie noted that Umahi’s intention for the senate presidency was not only incongruous, deceptive and a caricature, but definitely dead on arrival.

He added that Umahi had craftily drafted Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike into the project, stressing that no senator-elect or politician would accord any seriousness to the ambition. Okorie: “We note with amusement Umahi’s backdoor craftiness in drafting Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers State, to perhaps help him on the soon to be stillbirth ambition. The same man he once called “a thief with no intellectual content in politics.”

“This same Wike that Umahi then described as one who was “packing money that is public funds, not intellectual material, but just packing public funds”. Matter of fact, no Senator-elect, political group or platform of worth will accord any seriousness to this over ambition, save as a material for after-hours political comedy.”

He noted that though he supports the call by Umahi for the South-east to produce the 10th senate president, but reminded Umahi that his declaration as Ebonyi South Senator-elect was temporal.

Okorie added that he remained resolute to reclaim his mandate from the Election Petition Tribunal.

He further emphasised that Umahi has no legislative experience to have declared any intention to head such sensitive position.

“Umahi who is temporarily parading with my mandate, which he stole on February 25, 2023 through a nebulous alliance with a discredited professor who served as the Returning Officer of the Ebonyi South Senatorial election, was also reported to have declared his interest to run for the exalted office of the president of the senate. This is an ambition that is not only incongruous, deceptive and a caricature; but definitely dead on arrival.”

“First, Umahi has no mandate with which to pursue his imaginary ambition with, as I am resolute in reclaiming my legitimate mandate at the election tribunal. The process of which is ongoing.

Secondly, and of grave importance, the extant rules of the Senate and its subsisting precedents are clear on the primacy of cognate legislative experience for any aspirant to the exalted office; who on assumption also doubles as the Chairman of the National Assembly.”

“It is important that as Ndigbo, we urgently revert to our old ways of putting our best foot forward. The South-east cannot and should never allow self-serving political demagogues to usurp our opportunities, and we must take this serious, especially in the Nigeria political turf that becomes more complex and dexterous by the daily.”

“Let me reassure those eminently qualified Senators of South-east extraction, especially Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu and Sen. Osita Izunaso, that irrespective of political party differences, I wholeheartedly support their quest for the emergence of a senate president from the South-east, and I will continue to do so,” he said.

The LP senatorial candidate called on the people of Ebonyi South Zone to remain calm and law abiding as he hope that he would reclaim his mandate.

However, the leadership of Ohanaeze Ndigbo and Ebonyi State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists have endorsed Umahi for the senate presidency and urged the leadership of the ruling APC to anoint him for the job. (THISDAY)

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