The youth wing of apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo has slammed the Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi over his recent outburst with regard to the 2023 presidential election.
Umahi has been in the news following the shameful outing of South-East presidential aspirants.
The Ebonyi Governor, who participated in the All Progressives Congress, APC, primary election, has come out to say that the people of the state would support the APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
He had earlier said he would no longer recognize the Ohanaeze Ndigbo leadership.
Daily Post reports that the Governor defected from the APC to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, citing the refusal of the PDP to give the South-East presidential ticket.
However, with presidential primaries concluded, both the APC and the PDP did not give their tickets to the South-East zone.
Umahi, who could only muster 38 votes, has now turned his anger to the Ohanaeze.
He was also quoted to have asked Ebonyi people never to support Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the PDP.
But reacting on Tuesday, the President-General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council Worldwide, Mazi Okwu Nnabuike said Umahi needed urgent psychological attention.
He said ever since the Governor’s “disgraceful performance during the APC presidential primary election, he has been behaving and talking strangely.
“What he needs urgently now is an urgent psychological help because his woeful outing during the primary election has affected his reasoning.”
Okwu noted that “Umahi was deceived into joining the APC, with a fake promise of a presidential ticket. They did not just scam him but have also denied him the opportunity to produce his successor.”
On the issue of Ohanaeze’s role in the presidential primaries, the OYC President challenged Umahi to “state in clear terms the efforts he made to galvanize the support of his colleague governors to the Igbo presidency project.
“Whereas the Ohanaeze made all the regional organizations, including the Afenifere, the Middle-Belt Forum, the Niger-Delta Forum, among others, to support the Igbo cause, Umahi could not get the support of a single Governor. This goes to show that he is a paper tiger and must not be taken seriously.”
He maintained his earlier stand that the South-East governors sold the Igbo presidency project and would get the reward at the appropriate time.
Meanwhile, Governor Umahi has come out to deny asking Ebonyi people not to vote for Peter Obi.
He said he merely re-echoed his stand that he would support whoever emerged APC flagbearer.
