The Association of Ebonyi Indigenes Socio-Cultural in the Diaspora (AEISCID) has urged President Bola Tinubu to disregard statements made by Minister of Works Engr. David Nweze Umahi, claiming he will deliver the South East for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2027 general elections.
In a statement issued Thursday in Abuja, AEISCID President Ambassador Pascal Oluchukwu strongly refuted Umahi’s remarks, which were made in a State House documentary interview to mark Tinubu’s second year in office. Umahi had claimed that all South East governors, regardless of their party affiliations, support Tinubu’s second-term bid.
“People of the region are yet to see any vehement commitment from leaders like Umahi to use their influences to persuade the Tinubu administration to fix the real issues affecting our people,” said Oluchukwu.
The group criticized Umahi for allegedly denying the marginalization of the region and expressed disappointment over his silence on key issues, including the ongoing trial of Nnamdi Kanu and widespread concerns over technical issues affecting JAMB candidates in the South East.
“When it happened, my first reaction is to resign. But people advised me that the students will never forgive me because it will look like you abandoned them at such a time,” Oloyede said.
AEISCID pointed out that no major road infrastructure in the region — including the Enugu-Port Harcourt, Enugu-Onitsha, and Afikpo-Okigwe highways — has been completed in the two years since Tinubu’s administration took office, despite Umahi’s high-profile role as Works Minister.
“To further drive home our point on the high level of deceit ongoing in the guise of ‘ambitious projects’ by the Tinubu-led government using Umahi as a conduit executioner, no existing road infrastructure in the South East region has been completed in nearly two years,” the statement reads.
The group further criticized Umahi’s political credibility, referencing his struggles in the 2023 general election, where he allegedly lost control of his own senatorial zone.
“The last we recall on his electoral outing was his colossal loss of his Ebonyi South Senatorial zone in 2023, where even as a sitting governor, he couldn’t control a meagre five local government areas,” the group noted.
They accused Umahi of using security and electoral authorities to influence election outcomes and dismissed his claim of political influence over the South East.
“No serious political elite in the South East region can be easily swayed or influenced by Umahi except, perhaps, for the few cronies he has been servicing in his home state of Ebonyi,” the statement continued.
Concluding, AEISCID cautioned the Tinubu administration: “Umahi is trying to strategically position himself as a leader and a spokesperson of the South-East region he has zero influence on.”
