The Governor of Ebonyi State, David Umahi has denied withdrawing his presidential ambition for the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan.
Umahi denied the report making round in two separate statements released by his media aides, Uchenna Orji and Francis Nwaze.
There were reports that the Ebonyi State Governor was visited by Lawan on Saturday in the Governor’s Abuja residence.
Umahi and Lawan are presidential aspirants under the All Progressives Congress with the ambition to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari.
Umahi shared pictures of the visit on his verified social media handles.
The Ebonyi State Governor wrote, “It was a pleasure to welcome my brother, friend and the President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan with his entourage made of six senators to my Abuja residence a while ago.
“We had brotherly discussions on national unity and our aspirations.”
The Ebonyi Commissioner for Information, Orji in a statement released on Sunday described the report as fake news.
He called on members of the public to disregard the fake news describing it as cheap blackmail and absolute falsehood by desperate politicians.
Orji added, “We are surprised that Arise TV could descend so low as to take such a dirty job of running Aspirants down for needless gratifications.
‘We urge Arise TV to immediately purge itself of this wanting behaviour by stating the obvious that Governor David Nweze Umahi, APC Presidential Aspirant never stepped down.”
According to Orji, Lawan only returned a consultation visit previously accorded to him by Umahi.
Umahi’s Special Assistant on Media said the report is false in context and content.
Nwaze, “This raises a question mark about the credibility of the source of such fallacy, what never took place which is capable of putting Governor Umahi’s aspiration in jeopardy”
He said the Senate President’s visit was a last-ditch effort to ramp up partnership ahead of the APC presidential primary.
Nwaze reiterated that Umahi and Lawan promised to support whoever amongst the two and other aspirants emerge as the flagbearer from the primary.
“The Senate President even took out time to eulogize Engineer Umahi for making the Party proud through his purposeful governance in Ebonyi State.
“There was no time during the visit that the issue of stepping down by either Governor Umahi or the Senate President was discussed or even suggested.
“The teeming supporters of Engineer Umahi across Nigeria and beyond are encouraged to disregard the ill-fated news item which is by all standards fake, and go about their solidarity on the assurance that His Excellency the Governor is still very much in the race to develop Nigeria, God willing, he will emerge in the Presidential Primary of our great Party, the All Progressives Congress.”
This article was originally published on Naija News