Governor Umahi Appoints Five New Commissioners, Aides

Ebonyi Governor David Umahi has forwarded five commissioner-nominees to the Assembly for screening on Thursday.

Chief Press Secretary to Ebonyi Speaker Leo Ekene Oketa made this known in a statement.

He said: ” Engr David Nweze Umahi, Governor of Ebonyi State has forwarded to Ebonyi State House of Assembly, his list of nominees for appointment as Commissioners”.

“The nominees are Mathias Adum, Celestine Nwali, Romanus Nwasum, Chris Uchaji, and Beatrice Eze”, the statement said

Oketa also announced the nomination of seven other persons as Coordinators of some Development Centres in the State.

Development Centers are the fourth tier of government in the State created during the Sam Egwu administration.

The nominees are Justice Ogbonnaya (Akaeze DC); Peter Uduma (Ubeyi DC);
Sunday Agwu (Ishielu DC); Felix Ogbu Aniocha (Onicha DC); Chukwudi Pascal Obia (Izizi DC); Oliver Mbam (Omenyi DC) and Agbo Eucharia (Ngbo Central DC).

Oketa said all the nominees have been invited to appear before the Assembly for screening and possible confirmation by 11 am.

“The nominees are to submit their curriculum vitae, photocopies of their relevant credentials, and tax clearance certificates with evidence of payments of their property taxes, in 31 file copies, to the office of the Clerk of the House not later than 9 am, Thursday, May 12, 2022,” he added.

While the appointments may seem to be to fill vacant positions, investigations however show that they may not be the only reason.

Three of the Commissioner-nominees-Adum, Nwali, and Nwasum- are former Commissioners under the Martin Elechi administration.

Their appointment may not be unconnected with the recent division in the chapter of the All Progressive Congress(APC).

The trio left the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) and joined the APC around the time Umahi became Governor in 2015.

Umahi, then in PDP had a falling out with Elechi and his supporters, including the trio during the 2015 elections as Elechi opposed Umahi’s ambition to succeed him.

Elechi and his supporters later moved to the APC upon Umahi’s assumption of office.

All that changed in 2020 when Umahi left the PDP and joined the APC and began mending fences with Elechi.

However, a major division occurred in the APC this year following Umahi’s endorsement of Speaker Francis Nwifuru for Governor.

The Governor also endorsed his Commissioners, family members, and followers who moved with him to the APC from the PDP for National and State Assembly positions.

This caused an uproar among old members of the APC who petitioned the national leadership of the party accusing Umahi of sidelining those who had kept the party afloat in the state for years before he joined.

Umahi’s defence that one of the founding APC members and former State Chairman, Eze Nwachukwu is among those endorsed for the National Assembly position was not enough to convince the national leadership nor assuage the anger of the old APC members in the state.

The nomination and imminent appointment of the three old APC members as commissioners is seen as further steps by the governor to mend fences with the old APC members in the State.

All the appointments are also seen as a way to strengthen the APC in some parts of the State where the party seems not to have a stronghold ahead of the forthcoming general elections.