Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, has once again declared his admiration for the Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

This is as Umahi said the frontline candidate will garner a significant number of votes in the Southeast in the 2023 presidential election.

This made it the second time in barely a week that the Governor has openly acknowledged the big strides Obi has been making on the campaign trail.

In a recent interview on ARISE TV, Umahi had dismissed ever having any feeling of animosity towards the former Anambra State Governor who he described as his friend.

He went a step further by promising to organise an attention-grabbing reception for Obi in Ebonyi, adding that “I like what Peter Obi is doing.”

Umahi predicts bloc votes for Obi:

In his latest adulation of the Labour Party presidential candidate, Umahi noted that Obi’s political movement would be an effective harbinger for an Igbo presidency.

The former presidential aspirant, however, said Obi’s movement will not “translate into an outright win”, adding that he’d be rooting for the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s win in the 2023 presidential election

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Umahi said this while addressing State House Correspondents shortly after a private visit to the President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja on Friday, September 9, 2022.

The visit, he said, is to invite Buhari to commission the new N1.2bn Ebonyi State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja in mid-October.

Obi championing South-East course:

While commenting on his earlier call for an Igbo presidency in 2023, Umahi noted that Obi’s movement is an eye opener, showing that the Southeast can’t be relegated to the bottom of Nigeria’s politics.

Umahi’s word: “It’s going to be a different ball game altogether. Because when the campaign starts, yes, the interest of our people in terms of the presidency is there, you can’t wish it away. But everyone in the Southeast holding the ticket of their party is going to be struggling. You will not tell the guy that has the ticket of the House of Assembly to look at the bigger picture of Igbo presidency. He may not see it but that is not to say that Peter Obi is not going to get substantial votes in the Southeast.

“But the structure and the spread of APC is such that victory is assured. And I can assure you that some of the disagreements in some states are going to be resolved. A mechanism has been put in place by Mr. President, the candidate of the party, his vice and then the national chairman and leadership of the party, to sort out our differences. And I think we are well prepared for victory in 2023.

“What happened during the primaries of PDP and APC, were a kind of miscalculation by our people but to say whether they’re ready for the presidency of the country anytime, I think that the movement of Peter Obi is an eye opener.

“That’s why I said, I love what he’s doing. I’m encouraged by what he’s doing. Because if he’s not doing what he’s doing, it means that the Southeast would have been forgotten.

“So, while my party takes the victory, he would have prepared a very good ground, for the South East Presidency, so that nobody is going to write us off. And you can see the level of his acceptability, which does not translate to victory over APC.

 I’m sure of that, but it’s a good movement. And it reassures the southeast people and the entire country that we are accepted, you know, that we will one day become the president of this country. It is very important.

Source: Centurypost