The Ebonyi Government has said that Gov. David Umahi had at no time claimed to be a member of both the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC).
Mr Uchenna Orji, the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, made the declaration on Tuesday at a news conference, describing the claims that the governor had said so in some media publication as unfounded and baseless.
Orji said that the government should not have ordinarily reacted to the publication but did so because the state’s image was at stake.
“It was nonsensical for someone to write such report because no one can be in both the PDP and APC at the same time.
“The parties have registers to prove this as the governor only said during the concerned function that he is the governor of both parties and and everyone in Ebonyi.
“Anyone who therefore, blackmails the Ebony State Government using any party will realise that there are people who will readily defend the governor’s actions.
“The governor’s strides are glaring to all and he has always maintained that after party politics, administration of the state takes over,” he said.
The commissioner said that the government was not unmindful of the mechanisms of individuals who feel they could thrive on blackmail against the government.
“The governor is, however, not distracted but focused on making Ebonyi the best state in the country and people are attesting to this fact.
“The media should help to achieve developmental journalism by reporting rightly and objectively,” he said.
He also said the government was directing another online media outfit to retract its report on the state’s non-passage of the 2020 budget in 2019 or face legal actions.
“The publication reported that Ebonyi was one of the seven states in the country which did not sign its 2020 appropriation bill into law in 2019 and this is also unfounded.
“The governor in the full glare of the public and media, presented the state’s 2020 appropriation bill to the State House of Assembly on Dec. 13, 2019 which the House passed into law and he accented to.
“The state government through the Ministries of Finance and Information, subsequently convened a briefing where it analysed all projections and issues surrounding the budget,” he said.