Group Urges Embattled Enugu Deputy Governor not to Bow to Pressure

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News From The State Wednesday, July 30th, 2014

…Blasts Ex- Senate President for Double Standard

From Ignatius Okpara, Enugu

As the Impeachment process of the Enugu state Deputy Governor, Sunday Onuyebuchi progresses, a socio cultural organization, under the aegis of Enugu Rescue Group, (ERG), on Wednesday flayed the state People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Stakeholders statement which asked embattled Onyebuchi to resign.

African Examiner had similarly reported last week that the ruling party power brokers have advised Onyebuchi, to throw -in the towel, since his boss and the State Governor, Sullivan Chime no longer wanted to work with him.

The group in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Martin Okenwa and made available to newsmen in Enugu, frowned at the decision, saying it was uncalled for.

The troubled Enugu state number two man has been embroiled in a political war with Governor Chime, a development that prompted members of the State House of Assembly to commence his impeachment proceedings.

Consequently, PDP stakeholders recently met at the old Governor,s lodge in Enugu to review the situation and reportedly concluded that Onyebuchi should leave.

Contrarily, ERG in its statement described the July 27, meeting as a kangaroo arrangement contrived by the Governor to legitimize his unpopular directive to the State House of Assembly to sack his Deputy.

The group noted that Onyebuchi, was a member of the PDP, hence, elected by the generality of the Enugu people, not only by the PDP stalwarts.

It further posited that asking the Deputy to resign or get impeached at the pleasure of one man was unconstitutional and the height of impunity, wondering “why such a meeting was held without involving the Deputy Governor to tell his own side of the story”.

ERG said “It baffles us that rather than see if the alleged offences of the Deputy Governor were true or if they constituted gross misconduct and abuse of office as conceived by the 1999 Constitution, the meeting was more interested in whether the Governor wanted his Deputy or not.

“We therefore make bold to say that the whole impeachment episode is messier, ridiculous and a festival of shame and raw power”.

The group also questioned the role of the former Senate President, Ken Nnamani in the impeachment saga, affirming that his inconsistency on what constituted impeachable offences had left a big hole on his claims to being a democrat.

According to ERG members, it was surprising that the former lawmaker, who slammed the House of Representatives over the threat to impeach former President Olusegun Obasanjo for altering the 2005 Appropriation Act, was now allegedly spearheading the impeachment of a Deputy Governor on flimsy excuses.

The group recalled: “In the Vanguard newspaper of May 23, 2005, Senator Ken Nnamani said: ‘the word impeachment is a very serious one. It’s like saying that somebody is going to die, death sentence. We are careful how we use the word impeachment. We don’t think people should use the word impeachment randomly because it’s the final alternative. I don’t think we have got to that stage yet.”

“We therefore wonder who, between a President whom unilaterally altered an Act of the National Assembly and a Deputy Governor who allegedly failed to represent his Governor or allegedly reared a poultry, actually committed an impeachable offence”.

They also disagreed with Ken Nnamani on his support to Governor Chime that Enugu National Assembly members who are currently serving their second tenure in office should vacate their seats in 2015.

“This is another doublespeak on the part of the former Senator because we can easily recall that as Senate President, he had variously cited examples of US Congressmen who spent over 30 years in the Congress to demonstrate in both national and international fora how high turnover of legislators was the bane of the nation’s democracy”, ERG statement added.

The group which advised Onyebuchi not to succumb to pressure called on President Goodluck Jonathan and the national leadership of PDP to wade into the crisis with a view to stop the sack proceeding.