Why gov Umahi is after me- Elechi

Ebonyi State former governor, Martin Elechi, has claimed that the likely reason his successor, Governor Dave Umahi’s’ government is after him, could be his insistence that the administration follow due process in the handling of state issues.

Umahi was said to have in a recent statement vowed that he was going to probe the financial records of the state between 2007 and 2015, the period Elechi was in power as the state governor.

But Elechi who spoke Wednesday to newsmen in Abakaliki, the state capital, on political developments in the state, said he had been under investigation since he handed over power to Umahi on May 29, 2015. He suggested that the reason for his probe could be nothing else but his insistence on due process.

“If anybody says he is going to probe me now, that person should continue the probe from where he had stopped as I have been under probe since I left office. I have been under probe, including two of my children, since I handed over the leadership of the state to the present administration,” he said.

Commenting on the state government’s proposed loan request of $150m from the African Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank for the reconstruction of the 198km Abakaliki Ring Road, he said, “I have never made any statement against the plan; some people are thinking that I am against the state government borrowing the loan. This is not true because this is what I had done in the past during my tenure.”

Read also: FAYOSE: Lai speaks from both sides of his mouth; he’s “Liar-General” of the federation

The ex-governor added that his possible offence against the government was that he “only faulted the process of securing the loan.”

“We have a law in Ebonyi State which I initiated in 2009 called ‘Fiscal Responsibility Law’, it spells out how the state should borrow money; it provides regulations on handling of financial resources, and this law must be complied with unless for any reason Ebonyi State decides not to have the law,” he said.

Present governor of the state, Umahi, served as the deputy governor to Elechi. The two however, like in the case of Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje and his predecessor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, appear to have a great divide between them.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

 

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