By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The All Progressives Congress (APC) is set to receive the governor of Ebonyi State, Dave Umahi, into its fold in a major strategic battle ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
The Punch in a report published on November 11, said Umahi has told the national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that he would be quitting the party and joining the APC.
The Ebonyi state governor, according to the report, claimed that his decision to quit the PDP was basically for the interest of the South-East in the 2023 elections.
The report also claimed that Umahi told the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) led by its National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, that he could only change his mind if the PDP assures him of zoning the party’s presidential slot to the South East zone.
However, PDP stalwarts in the South East have told this newspaper that the Ebonyi state governor’s motivation to dump the PDP may be hinged on a promise of vice president, a ticket which he reckons may not be vacant in the PDP.
The APC has not determined which part of the country would fly its presidential flag in 2023, but going by the party’s leadership comments about zoning, the slot may be open for all.
Umahi, according to our sources, may have been approached by a bloc in the APC that enjoys the support of President Muhammadu Buhari to consider running along side a northern pick, a move that would see the bloc aligning with the South East against a former Lagos governor, Bola Tinubu whose presidential ambition is an open secret.
Sources say Tinubu, a Muslim, would have to run with a northern christian, a reason he encouraged the former speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, to defect from the PDP to the APC in order to serve as his running mate.
Peter Obi, according to one source, is the ace the PDP currently has in the South East and that limits Umahi’s chances for a presidential or vice move in 2023, hence his defection to the APC.