By CHARLES IWUOHA

The former Commissioner of Information and State Orientation, Chief Abia Onyike, on Thursday dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that he can’t work with the Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr Dave Umahi.

Onyike in a statement he personally signed and made available to journalists, said he dumped the ruling APC as a protest against the alleged Umahi’s extremely greediness, covetous and nepotism administration.

According to him, “After a critical review of the current political scenario in Ebonyi State, especially since November. 19, 2020, when Gov. David Umahi decamped from PDP to APC, I, Abia Onyike, decided to return back to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

“Gov. David Umahi is not prepared to turn a new leaf in his dictatorial, totalitarian and autocratic leadership style in the governance of Ebonyi State, a situation that has unleashed mass poverty and mass impoverishment on Ebonyi citizenry.

“Umahi’s government is far from being a democracy. He wants to continue in his usual government of anarchy through which instability, violence and lawlessness are exacerbated in the governance of the state.

“As we speak, a new wave of killings and loss of lives is gradually unfolding in the state in Ezza North and Ezza South LGAs, no thanks to the regime of impunity prevalent in the state. The political space is already fouled by antagonistic propaganda being fuelled and targeted against those wanting to toe a different and independent path of political party affiliation, especially those who have expressed their resolve to be in PDP.

“Gov. Umahi sees public office not as an instrument for the provision of welfare for the citizenry, but as a platform for personal and family aggrandizement. He runs an anti- peoples government and has by doing so declared himself the enemy of the people. He is self-willed, self-opinionated, self-serving, self-centered and selfish.

“I am convinced that those who make up the PDP in the state now are tested leaders and like-minded patriots who are committed to the genuine development of Ebonyi State, hence my decision to identify with them at this critical moment.

“Take note that from 2015-2019, Gov. Umahi ran the state without Permanent Secretaries, which was deliberately done for free for all looting of funds without administrative checks and balances. Ebonyi looks like being in a state of war because of Umahi’s extremely greedy, covetous and nepotic administration.

“Umahi recently boasted that he will sow seeds of discord in the opposition party and will be seeping his champagne while they fight themselves”.

“The PDP in Ebonyi state must be used as a liberation movement to rescue Ebonyians from the stranglehold of Gov. Umahi, whose inordinate ambition is to hand over power to his proxy with his son as the next Speaker of Ebonyi State House of Assembly, come 2023.”

In a swift reaction, Governor Umahi described Onyike as darkness, stressing that there is no way darkness and light can work together.

Umahi, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Media Francis Nwaze, said it is better that Onyike leaves APC because the party won’t like to work with darkness.

He said: “Light and darkness do not work together; when the light comes, the darkness immediately disappears. Abia Onyike represents darkness. He just disappeared from APC because light has come into APC.

“Onyike is a joker; this is the first time Ebonyians are coming together. All stakeholders in Ebonyi are with Umahi, forget the few people that are gathering together, they are so insignificant.

“Umahi has taken the correct steps. All prominent stakeholders are with him.”