*Says he sponsored 2000 persons to attend opposition campaigns
By Lawrence Olaoye
Ebonyi state Governor, Dave Umahi, has said that he does not do extreme politics in the state but that of development.
The governor in brief interaction with newsmen after the departure of President Muhammadu Buhari from the state at the end of his campaign said this in reaction to the claims that he denied the opposition the use of the Township Stadium.
He said “First time they wanted to use the stadium; they had two factions and they were going to fight and destroy our property. I said no. They should clear with the commissioner of police and come up with one set of leadership so that they can use the stadium and I was going to give it to them free of charge.
Today, not only did we give them the stadium which of course is incumbent on me to give them the stadium when Mr. President is coming, we renovated stadium and painted the seats. We called them for
security council meeting, some of them came and we asked what is it that you want?
“The crowd you see there, 2,000 of them are from me because I know they have nobody. But for it not to seem that Ebonyi people don’t love Mr. President, I had to make available 2,000 people and that is why if you check the crowd, when they were castigating me unduly the crowd were not clapping, they were not happy.
“But for the respect they have for Mr. President they would have booed them. I had to do that because I am not into extreme politics, I am into development.”
Responding to the allegation that he was paying civil servants in the state whatever he liked as salaries, the workforce he inherited has been depleted without replacement and that he deliberately refused
to appoint permanent secretaries to man government ministries and agencies, the governor said:
“You see, when they have nothing to accuse you of, they have to come up with something. Even given without accepting, the facts are these tangible things to boast with? In the first place, the workforce I met, I have never retired anybody and I don’t think two percent of the workforce has retired.
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