Three outstanding civil society groups; the Ohanivo Formative years Discussion board, Concerned Ohanivo Females, and the Nigeria Formative years Organisation (NYO) hold issued separate but strongly worded press statements defending the Honourable Minister of Works, His Excellency Senator Engr. David Nweze Umahi, CON, towards what they collectively describe as “a coordinated marketing campaign of defamation and online harassment.”
The statements, all released on Friday, February 27, 2026, were precipitated by the circulation of social media movies featuring Mrs. Tracy Nicholas Ohiri, who has made financial claims towards the minister, and the next involvement of activist Omoyele Sowore, who allegedly confronted the minister in a widely publicised incident.
The Ohanivo Formative years Discussion board, in a commentary signed by its Nationwide President, Senior Comrade George Chimeebere Nwoye, described Sowore’s behavior as “a continuation of a familiar pattern of opportunistic agitation driven by pretence rather then real public pastime.”
The Discussion board praised the minister for his restraint, noting that “his behavior clearly reveals deep admire for himself, the diagram of job he occupies, and the Nigerian americans he serves.” It furthermore alleged that Sowore had beforehand exploited Igbo sensitivities by inserting himself into protests surrounding the Nnamdi Kanu case, most attention-grabbing to abandon the diagram off midway.
The group changed into unequivocal in its warning, mentioning that “this have to be the closing attempt to weaponise ethnic sentiment, manufactured outrage, or staged confrontations towards our pricey leader.”
Alternatively, fervent Ohanivo Females, in a commentary by its Media Director, Chief Mrs. Nnennaya Okorie, characterised Mrs. Ohiri’s allegations as “emotional blackmail and a calculated attempt to sway public sentiment towards the Honourable Minister.” The group pointed to what it described as repeated contradictions in Mrs. Ohiri’s account, arguing that “no credible claim survives repeated self-contradiction.”
Referencing Umahi’s eight-year tenure as Ebonyi Voice Governor, the females’s group maintained he changed into “widely known for prudence, accountability, and proper governance” and changed into no longer linked with any proven scandal all the plot through that duration.
The NYO went furthest in its demands, calling on security and regulatory businesses to evaluation “the origin, intent and seemingly sponsorship within the motivate of those trending publications.” The organisation cited obvious inconsistencies in Mrs. Ohiri’s account including varying figures of ₦25 million and ₦250 million allegedly owed, and spirited timelines of three, 9, and 12 years as proof that the marketing campaign will seemingly be coordinated.
Describing the minister’s critics as a distraction from national building, the NYO warned that “Nigerian youths will face up to any attempt to coerce or stress the Honourable Minister into making any win of fee exterior the dictates of the regulation.”
In a indispensable circulation, the organisation introduced it may perchance well perchance presumably perhaps perhaps confer on Umahi its Mighty Nationwide Formative years Advantage Award of Excellence as Only Minister of the twelve months 2025, citing what it called his “demonstrable efficiency” in toll road infrastructure building.
All three groups confused out that the topic gripping Mrs. Ohiri is already sooner than a court docket of competent jurisdiction and urged that due job be allowed to scoot its course rather then what the NYO termed “the court docket of social media belief.”
Minister Umahi has no longer publicly answered to the allegations at the time of those releases.
