Ebonyi State Governor David Umahi has denied a claim by his predecessor, Chief Martin Elechi, that he headed the Executive Council Committee on Inspection during his (Elechi) second tenure as governor.

Umahi also dismissedallegation that he was the hand behind a number of petitions before the Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against Elechi and some of his children.
The governor was reacting to aletter written to him by Elechi rejectinga V8 Toyota SUV he gave the former governor.

The letter, whichcopies were sent tothe Speaker of the State House of Assembly, the state Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria(CAN) the Department of State Services in the state, was leaked to the press.

But Umahi, at an Agriculture Summit organized for clerics in Abakaliki on Thursay, said the Exco had agreed to ignore the letter but since the former governor had decided to make it public, it was necessary to put the facts right.

He said: “I would not have commented on the letter of my former boss if it had not been published... We agreed in the EXCO that we should ignore it but when I started seeing it published, I felt that in a public gathering like this, we have to clear some issues.”
The governor however, explained thathe was sometimes drafted to a monitoring team if there were engineering difficulties in some projects during Elechi’s tenure. He mentioned some of them asthe Oferekpe water project and the Agba bridge where his involvement saved the state a whopping N1.6 billion.

He emphasised that vehicles were purchased for former governors, including Elechiand a former Senate President, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim. Umahi said rejecting the car was not the best option as Elechi had written to him shortlyafter he left officeto give his wife two cars which heobliged.

He also faulted where the former governor said in the letter thathe never advised him.
His words:“How can I advise somebody who does not take advice and never changed his mind when he says something?

“I advised him on the issue of NigerCem and the clergymen also did. By now, Ibeto would have revived the company but he refused.”Umahi said some of the petitions that hadmade Elechi a regular visitor to theEFCC werewritten when both of themwere in government asgovernor and deputy governor“by someone who is nowin his (Elechi) camp.”

Insistingthat his administration never wrote any petition against the former governor, he said he hadpersonally appealed to the EFCC to leave Elechi alone because of his age.
He said he also told the commission that if Elechi was found wanting in anyway, he would pay back. He however, added that Elechi's children who were involved in contract scams would have to answer for their actions.

The governor added: “This administration has never written anything to the EFCC. I say this between God and myself. I told the EFCC that they should allow this man (Chief Elechi) some peace because he is aged. I told them that if they find him wanting in terms of money, I will undertake to be paying gradually until it is cleared.
“I said that because he is the one that brought us to leadership but not for his children. His children will answer question on whatever they committed. One of his children is accused of involvement in a multi-million naira ICT project fraud. I want people to know that I was not there when the job was given to him.”

He said the contractors which the former governor said he chased out of the state were not honestand that no sincere government would have worked with them.
Umahiexplained that costs of most of the contracts given by the former governor werefound to have been over-inflated. This, according to him, madehis government to callfor joint measurement which made them to flee.

Umahi wondered why the former governor whom hehonestly served as “a slave” could be harbouring ill-feelings. He told the gathering that 15 of his commissioners had been regular visitors tothe ICPC courtesy of allegations by Elechi’sloyalists that they embezzled billions of naira belonging to the state. He said he was ready to give Elechi peace and expressed his readiness and willingness for reconciliation if the former governor could approach CAN for truce.

•Photo shows Umahi.