As politicians strategise for the 2023 politics, Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State has said that he does not have any presidential ambition that year.
Umahi lamented that some politicians had been plotting to discredit him with rumours that he planned to run for the presidency in 2023, saying that such people had been doing so in a manner meant to paint him as being desperate.
The governor stated in a statement made available to The NEXT EDITION on Saturday issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Francis Nweze, that his attention had been drawn to an ill-conceived political poster with his image contesting for the presidency, flanked by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State as his running mate.
He maintained that the poster showed the imprint of detractors and political desperados who thrive on gossips, rumours and had resorted to producing a smokescreen in an attempt to drag his name in the mud via the poster.
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“One could not help, but come to a sane conclusion that enemies of the state probably quoting the harmless expression of an Igbo born industrialist, Chief Cletus Ibeto, who said, ‘When it is time, we will send Umahi’, decided to stir the hornet’s nest and heat up the polity with such embarrassing poster.
“In as much as Governor David Umahi has towering credentials that in any contest make him visible, he has not made public, any intention to contest for any position in 2023, let alone choosing a successor as he is a governor, who is presently committed to delivering dividends of democracy to his Ebonyi people as he believes that politicking ends immediately after election.
“We, therefore, call on all lovers of good governance, Governor Umahi’s ambassadors and the general public to ignore such posters as it is nothing, but the handiwork of mischievous elements who are determined to put the Governor against his admirers,” Nweze said.
He stressed that as far as he was concerned, “2023 is too far to start politicking now.
