November 9 2017

Gov. Dave Umahi of Ebonyi has enjoined President Muhammadu Buhari to re-contest the presidential election in 2019 as he also indicated interest to re-contest the governorship election in the state.

The governor, who spoke to State House correspondents in Abuja on Thursday, said President Buhari was very qualified to seek a second term.

Umahi, a first term governor, who was elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), was at the Presidential Villa ahead of President Buhari’s planned visit to Ebonyi, Anambra and Imo states.

“Well, any first term governor would want to go for second term and if what you wish yourself, you should be honest enough to wish another person the same.

“Since, Mr President is doing his first term and I am doing my first term, it’s my wish to re-contest and I will as well wish the president the same to re-contest (in 2019),’’ he said.

On the President’s planned visit to Ebonyi, Umahi said the state was fully prepared for the visit.

He said: “We pleaded with Mr President for the visit and before then we have been preparing, we are fully prepared.’’

The governor revealed that several projects had been lined up for inauguration by the President during the visit.

According to the governor, the twin flyovers that is built across the African trans-atlantic road running from Enugu to Cameroun passing through Ebonyi State will be among the projects to be inaugurated by the president.

“We have quite a lot of projects that we have executed within the past two and the half years.

“We have three numbers of twin flyovers that is built across the African trans-atlantic road running from Enugu to Cameroun passing through Ebonyi State.

“So we have to build three twin flyover to decongest traffic on that road, each of the twin flyover is 700 metre length.

“We have completed two and the third one is 80 per cent done, Mr President will commission the two.

“We also have a mall what we call Ebonyi mall that is modelled after the famous Dubai mall.’’

He stated that the president would lay a foundation stone for the mall during the visit.

Umahi expressed the hope that President Buhari would inaugurate the Mall project when he returned to the state for re-election campaign in the next 12 months.

“Also we are building a tunnel that dovetails into a flyover that is parallel to the existing flyover, that particular junction that is called Akanu Ibiam junction.

“We want Mr President to lay the foundation stone and that flyover bridge will be named after Mr President and we are sure to finish that project in the next 12 months, Mr President will also come back, he will be commissioning it when he comes back for his campaigns.’’