Ebonyi South Senatorial seat: ‘It’s anti-democratic to insist on producing your successor’ – PDP to Umahi

The Peopls Democratic Party (PDP), Ebonyi State chapter, on Tuesday berated the former governor, David Umahi of claiming to have the right to produce the next senator of Ebonyi South Senatorial Zone, after dumping the seat for a ministerial position.

Newspot reports that Umahi, during a courtesy visit to the state governor, Francis Nwifuru, a day after he was declared the winner by the Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja, claimed that it was his right to produce his successor.

However, the State Chairman of PDP, Mr Nwazunku Augustine, in a statement signed and issued to newsmen in Abakaliki, said it’s anti-democratic for the Works Minister, Umahi, to insist on being the one to produce the zone’s senator after dumping the position without due consultation.

Nwazunku insisted that Umahi was controversially elected into the Senate and shouldn’t claim the right to be the one to produce a successor, adding that he (Umahi) unilaterally abandoned the seat without consultation with his constituents. “It is extremely preposterous for him to come back now to offer such a ludicrous and anti-democratic assertion that he should be allowed to choose his successor in the Senate,” he said.

He, however, urged the former governor to know that the judgement of the tribunal on the petitions brought against him by his opponents; Senator Mike Nnachi of the PDP and Linus Okorie of the Labour Party, LP, that was ruled in his favour was not the final judgement.

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The PDP chairman, Nwazunku, noted further that both; Nnachi and Okorie have signalled their interests to appeal the judgement, adding that “It is only when the legal matters are concluded that the issue of re-run elections or bye-elections would be thrown up, depending on the final outcome of the legal matter.”

He continued: “For Umahi to have jumped the gun by piling up pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to commence preparations for fresh elections in Ebonyi South Senatorial District is a clear case of impunity and arrogant/reckless abuse of power, which further benchmarks Umahi’s usual acts of impudence and lawlessness.

“It is the sovereign right of the people of Ebonyi South Senatorial District to choose those who will represent them at the National Assembly. In the specific case of the current Ebonyi South Senatorial District, Umahi has no powers whatsoever to muscle his way through as he used to do when he was the sitting Governor of Ebonyi State,” he stated.