Group to Umahi: Perish your dream to become Nigeria’s President

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, on Wednesday, asked Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, to perish his dream of becoming Nigeria’s next President.

According to the group, Umahi had in the last six years as governor repressed press freedom and arrested journalists for reporting factual but negative developments in Ebonyi.

National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, made this known in a statement titled, ‘HURIWA to Umahi: You lack the temperament to be Nigeria’s President’.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that Umahi visited the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), on Tuesday in Aso Rock and informed him of his decision to run for President in 2023.

But reacting, HURIWA said Umahi has demonstrated a “dictatorial” disposition against the press and should “perish his dreams of becoming President of Nigeria or to resign as governor to enable his deputy complete his remaining one year in office”.

HURIWA said Umahi recently banned two journalists (Chijioke Agwu of Sun Newspaper and Peter Okutu of Vanguard Newspaper) from the Government House. The group also said the governor ordered the arrest of the two reporters over their reports on the Lassa Fever outbreak in the state and the alleged military invasion of Umuogodoakpu-Ngbo community in the state.

The group, therefore, described the presidential ambition of Umahi as a “pipe dream which must never be allowed to materialize into the worst nightmares for Nigerians”.

Umahi defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress in November 2020. Punch