Ebonyi Governor David Umahi says contrary to raging reports, he is not against the ambition of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate.

Mr Umahi, the leader of the All Progressives Congress and Chairman of the South-East Governors Forum earlier this week said his state will not follow any other political agenda in the 2023 elections aside from voting for his party.

The talk was deemed a jab at Mr Obi, a former governor of Anambra, who have been making sharp inroads in his native South-East since he picked the Labour party ticket.

Mr Obi is the only president from the Igbo ethnic stock on the presidential ticket of a major political party in the 2023 elections. The region has not had a shot at the Nigerian presidency since the advent of the Fourth Republic.

Uchenna Orji, the information commissioner in Ebonyi said in a statement on Friday that Mr Umahi “deeply appreciates Obi’s courage in his campaign.”

“Umahi never said that Obi was going nowhere and that he (Umahi) does not believe in the nation’s president of Igbo extraction,” he clarified. “The governor is a member of the All Progressives Congress and shall support the party in all their state and national elections as a good party man.

“He believes that political party members should defend their parties during elections and people will freely vote for candidates of their choice,” the statement added. 

(NAN)