Grace Egbo
Ebonyi South Senatorial candidate of the Labour Party, Hon Linus Okorie has noted that Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi is not qualified and competent to occupy the office of the President of the Senate.
According to Okorie, Umahi has no legislative experience to have declared any intention to head such a sensitive position.
Okorie disclosed this in a statement he made available to newsmen in Abakaliki.
Okorie also added that Umahi’s intention for the Senate Presidency was not only incongruous, deceptive and a caricature, but dead on arrival as no senator-elect or politician will accord any seriousness to his ambition even as he craftily drafted Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike into the project.
According to 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 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 Southeast to produce the 10th Senate President, 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.
“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 dead on arrival”.
“First, Umahi has no mandate with which to pursue his imaginary ambition, 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 Southeast cannot and should never allow self-serving political demagogues to usurp our opportunities, and we must take this seriously, especially in the Nigeria political turf that becomes more complex and dexterous by the daily”.
“Let me reassure those eminently qualified Senators of Southeast 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 Southeast, and I will continue to do so”,
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.
But reacting to the labour party senatorial candidate statement, the Special Assistant to Governor David Umahi on Media and Publicity, Chooks Oko, said Governor David Umahi is eminently qualified for the post of the President of the 10th Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He maintained that Okorie is not qualified to refute the glaring facts and urged the general public to ignore his statement adding that he is in no place to determine what happens outside his house.
His words “We are surely not interested in joining issues with Linus Okorie over this fallacy of insignificance depicting his frustration and fixation over his abysmal failure in achieving his inordinate Senatorial ambition, which from inception was rooted in deceit, betrayal and scandal.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Umahi is in the Senate to stay, hundred litigations from daydreamers cannot shake the mandate he was freely given by the people who remain grateful for all he has done for them.
“Umahi as a former Party Chairman, Deputy Governor and Governor for eight years can handle any position of authority very well. Those extant laws Okorie referred to have been waived in the past, it is not a strange occurrence at all. The good Lord will perfect it still and to him will return all Glory.
“For the records, Umahi has received the backing of Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists as well as other notable groups and institutions, including Igbos in the diaspora. It is inconsequential to respond to a conquered miniature figure like Linus Okorie who has been boxed into an insignificant corner of disgraceful defeat.
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