ENUGU, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State has described the threat of impeachment against him by the state assembly as futile.
Reacting to the impeachment threats, while briefing journalists, in Enugu, on Tuesday, Chime said the assembly had not followed constitutional procedures.
The governor explained that the constitution requires two-thirds of the members of the state House Assembly to do so, but that they did not meet up with the requirement.
According to him, the state had 24 members in the assembly and only 14 members, including the speaker, met to commence the impeachment proceedings.
He said the speaker should get, at least, 16 members of the house to investigate the allegations against him.
“As I am talking to you now, nobody has served me with notice of any impeachment,’’ he said.
On allegations of financial misconduct, Chime stated that since assumption of office in 2007, the accounts of the government had been audited and published annually till 2014.
The governor said the audited accounts and budgets were given to the assembly and interested members of the public.
Chime explained that the assembly authorised the government to obtain the loan of N11 billion in November, 2014, through its resolution which was communicated to him.
“Their resolution, dated November 13, 2014 authorised the state government to obtain loans of N1 billion and N10 billion from United bank of Africa (UBA) to refinance facilities at the Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) and for infrastructural projects in the state,’’ he said.
On concession of the water corporation, the governor said that the government only engaged a company, AG Gold, to help in water infrastructure after previous attempts by three companies failed.
Chime alleged that there were attempts to extort money from him.
“The speaker and the leader wanted to be governor and deputy governor, respectively and because they failed in their bid, they have decided to resort to blackmail. All the allegations they are brandishing have to do with money,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state governor-elect, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has waded into the crisis between two main factions of the assembly, even as a pro-Sullivan Chime group staged a peaceful protest at Government House, Enugu, calling for a stop to the impeachment process.
The truce initiated by the governor-elect came few hours after the out-going state chief executive dismissed his alleged forgery of the 2012 supplementary budget to the tune of N12 billion.
Governor Chime maintained that the lawmakers’ claims of financial misappropriation were untrue, stressing that all the budgets of the state from the inception of his administration till the moment had been published and made to become public documents.
It was learnt that the intervention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor-elect might have informed Speaker Eugene Odo’s group from reconvening its plenary sitting at the state assembly complex, on Tuesday, as earlier announced.
Further checks revealed that a reconciliation meeting was called, on Tuesday, at the instance of the in-coming governor at his Enugu residence.
Although the meeting, which lasted for several hours, was held behind closed door, an inside source said calm returned dramatically among the feuding members of the assembly.
It was learnt that the governor-elect dined with the warring factions after a provisional resolution of the conflict, following the degeneration of the running face-off between Governor Chime and the assembly.
The source told Nigerian Tribune, that Honourable Michael Onyeze, representing Ignoeze North 1 constituency, spoke for Honourable Odo-led faction while Honourable Joseph Ugwumba representing Enugu-East Rural constituency spoke for the Chinedu Nwamba-led faction.
Credit: Tribune (Nigeria)
