Obi vows to stop Umeh from going to Senate

• Denied PDP ticket for Anambra Central rerun

FORMER National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Victor Umeh, has become a tentative victim of political victimization in the build up to the rerun election in Anambra Central Senatorial District, which was last weekend postponed sine die by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). National Daily gathered that the travail Umeh went through in the hands of security operatives last week was the handiwork of his arch-political associate who was formerly an APGA member.

National Daily gathered from a reliable source that former Governor of Anambra State on the platform of APGA, Peter Obi, purportedly declared that he will never allow Umeh go to the Senate, representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly. Obi was alleged to have vowed to scuttle every plan of Umeh to win the rerun election any time INEC reschedules the date.

This alleged brinkmanship of Obi made many stakeholders in Anambra State suspect the former governor has a hand in the arrest of Umeh last week by the Department of Security Service (DSS).

Our source from Anambra State also revealed that Obi wants to contest for the Senate to represent Anambra Central District. Obi was said to have consulted leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Anambra Central senatorial ticket but the PDP leaders told Obi he is not a PDP member. The PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, also wants to give the ticket to Annie Okonkwo, who won the PDP primary, our source said.

Obi’s interest in the senate was first revealed by Senator Ben Bruce who said at his 60th birthday anniversary that he heard Obi wants to join them in the senate. Obi had, then, refuted it.

Meanwhile, Umeh, who is the candidate of APGA in the Anambra Central rerun poll, was released from the custody of the DSS last Thursday. On returned to Awka, he was welcomed by a mammoth crowd of party supporters and well wishers.

Umeh had explained to his supporters on arrival from Abuja that he got a text message from the DSS in Anambra State inviting him for a meeting last Wednesday at the headquarters. He had said that although he did not know the purpose of the meeting but that he scheduled the meeting for Thursday after a trip to Enugu to observe the judgment in the case brought by his former opponent in the Senatorial election, Mrs. Uche Ekwunife.

Umeh’s media aide narrated that the DSS arrested Umeh at his residence in Enugu following a “petition by political leaders from Anambra State, allegedly led by former governor of the state, Dr. Peter Obi, that he is sponsoring the activities of the IPOB, MASSOB.”

However, media aide to former Governor Obi, Valentine Obienyem, had protested that Umeh should leave Obi out of his travails. Obienyem was gathered to have declared: “contrary to reports that Umeh was not handcuffed and was not flown to Abuja; they traveled by road …”