Impeachment Saga: Group Faults Enugu PDP On Deputy Governor’s Resignation , Alleges Sen Ken Nnamani Has Role

Odogwuemekaodogwu.blogspot.com reports that a pan-Enugu pressure group, Enugu Rescue Group, ERG, has lampooned the widely reported alleged decision by some members of the Enugu PDP Stakeholders that the embattled Deputy Governor of Enugu State, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi should resign since Governor Sullivan Chime no longer wanted to work with him.

It made this known in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Martin Okenwa and made available to newsmen in Enugu on Tuesday.

The Group described the meeting held at the Governor’s Lodge in Enugu on July 27, 2014 as a kangaroo arrangement contrived by Governor Chime to legitimize his unpopular directive to the State House of Assembly to impeach his Deputy.

The ERG insisted that even though the Deputy Governor was a member of the PDP, he was elected by the generality of the Enugu people, not only by the PDP.

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

The group also 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 more messy, ridiculous, and a festival of shame and raw power.”

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

The Enugu group said it was surprised that the former lawmaker who slammed the House of Representatives over the threat to impeach former President Olusegun Obasanjo for singly altering the year 2005 Appropriation Act, was now allegedly spearheading the impeachment of a Deputy Governor on flimsy excuses.

It continued: “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 the person actually committed an impeachable offence”.

It also disagreed with Ken Nnamani on his backing of 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 thirty 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”, they added.

The ERG urged the Deputy Governor not resign as that could amount to political suicide and conceding wrong and impeachable offence where there were clearly none.

It instead asked President Goodluck Jonathan and the national leadership of the PDP to halt what it described as manifest impunities and “chicken impeachment” going on in the State.