The Association of Ebonyi Indigenes Socio-Cultural in the Diaspora (AEISCID) has given Minister of Works David Umahi 72 hours to retract recent remarks and apologise or face legal action.
In a statement signed by its worldwide president, Ambassador Paschal Oluchukwu, on Monday, the group condemned comments attributed to Umahi in a viral video concerning the 2027 elections.
Umahi had defended his opposition to the presidential ambition of former Anambra governor Peter Obi, questioned Obi’s relationship with Ebonyi people, and alleged that Obi appointed no Ebonyi indigene during his tenure as Anambra governor.
Umahi also insisted on zoning arrangements, stating that it was not yet the turn of the South-East and Peter Obi to produce Nigeria’s president, just as it was not the turn of Ebonyi South Senatorial District to produce the next governor of Ebonyi State.
He further said he would urge the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Ebonyi, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii (also referred to as Anyi Chuks), to step down, declaring that it was “turn by turn.”
AEISCID described the remarks as divisive, unbecoming of a federal minister, and capable of driving a wedge between Ebonyi people and other Igbo communities.
The group accused Umahi of attacking politicians for exercising their constitutional rights and argued that the zoning debate was being used to protect current Ebonyi Governor Francis Nwifuru, whom it described as Umahi’s political ally.
The association pointed out what it called Umahi’s hypocrisy, noting that he had contested the 2015 governorship election even when a candidate from the same Ebonyi South zone was already in contention.
It also questioned his electoral record, claiming he failed to deliver his polling unit or ward to the All Progressives Congress in the 2023 presidential election and lost his senatorial contest in his home village of Uburu.
AEISCID demanded that Umahi withdraw the statements and apologise to Peter Obi, Odii, Ebonyi people, and the wider Igbo community within 72 hours. Failure to comply, it warned, would attract legal consequences.
The group also urged the Tinubu administration to call the minister to order, insisting that members of the Federal Executive Council should promote national unity rather than stoke ethnic tensions ahead of the 2027 elections.
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