Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, Engr. Dave Umahi, has explained why he opposed Governor Martin Elechi’s plan to hand power over to former minister of health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu.

Addressing newsmen in Abakaliki at the weekend, Umahi said he could not have supported Governor Elechi or given up his struggle to succeed his boss since it was his “turn to chop” and somebody was trying to stop him after he had invested in and suffered for the PDP in the state.

“Anybody that is saying I should have surrendered is just making a prayer for himself because how would I have suffered for the party, how would I have invested, and you say I no go chop? E no good. They say na where somebody dey work, na there e dey chop; that’s why they call it workshop,” said the deputy governor, whose comment drew noisy reaction from the huge audience made up of mainly party supporters and some journalists.

Umahi also questioned if Elechi really and sincerely wanted to hand power over to Prof. Chukwu or actually wanted power to shift to Ebonyi South, insisting that the governor should have at least given the governorship ticket of the Labour Party, which he accused him of secretly supporting, to Chukwu rather than to Edward Nkwegu.

“The question I’m asking is did he really want to hand over power to the South? Otherwise, why didn’t he give the governorship ticket of Labour Party to Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, and then my brother and myself would have gone into negotiation?” he asked.