Umahi: Ebonyi will deliver 1.3m votes for Tinubu in 2027

Dave Umahi, Minister of Works and former governor of Ebonyi, says the state will deliver 1.3 million votes for President Bola Tinubu in the 2027 elections.

Umahi spoke on Monday at the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential rally in Ebonyi, where he declared the state’s support for Tinubu and Vice-President Kashim Shettima.

The minister said Ebonyi residents would support Tinubu because of what he described as the president’s efforts to reintegrate the south-east into the country’s political and developmental process.

“Let me tell you, you say we are Wawa, yes, we agree, but it’s Tinubu we will follow. You say we are Abakaliki; yes, we accept, but it’s Tinubu we will follow,” he said.

Umahi said the people of the state would not choose politicians based on sentiment, noting that Tinubu had demonstrated commitment to Ebonyi and the south-east.

“We are following a man who has remembered the people of Ebonyi, the man that has remembered south-east, the man that has integrated us,” he said.

The former governor said Tinubu was fulfilling the commitments made to the south-east after the Nigerian civil war, particularly in the areas of reintegration and rehabilitation.

He described the president as the only leader who had remembered Ebonyi and urged residents to support his re-election bid.

Umahi also declared support for Francis Nwifuru, governor of Ebonyi, saying the APC would retain the governorship seat in the state.

“No other person can take the governorship from Ebonyi. Nwifuru must do his eight years. We have no contest in Ebonyi,” he said.

The minister described Ebonyi as an APC stronghold, saying the party controlled the state from top to bottom.

He said the state was not campaigning to defeat another political party but to secure 1.3 million votes for Tinubu.

“Ebonyi state will give President Bola Ahmed Tinubu 1.3 million votes. We are not working to defeat any party because we have none to defeat,” Umahi said

“But to give 1.3 million to Tinubu, so that we can mount at the table of negotiation, so that we can get all that we are supposed to get.”