Ohaneze, Utomi's led UNDEDSS urge Yar’Adua to resign or risk impeachment

Ohaneze Ndigbo, a powerful pan Igbo group has called on President Umar Yar'Adua to

resign from office saying it is obvious that the President is incapacitated.

According to the group “to save this nation from further underserved agony, the

president should relinquish office on the grounds of incapacitating illness. Ndigbo now

calls on the relevant constitutional organs to immediately set in motion, the process of

ascertaining the fitness or otherwise of the president to continue to exercise his

functions as demanded by his exalted office.”
The president general of the group, Chief Ralph Uwechue, with his predecessor, Dr

Dozie Ikedife and First Republic Minister of Aviation, Chief Mbazurike Amaechi, told

newsmem in Awka that “the manner of Yar'Adua's return in an air ambulance and this,

after the best form of medical care that money can buy, coupled with the fact that he

has not yet been able to show himself publicly to his countrymen and women who

prayed fervently for his recovery, clearly indicates that for Nigeria, it is not yet uhuru.”

The ohaneze leaders said that though nobody will wish other human being ill-health but

added that the manner the nation is grinded to a halt following the president's health is

unacceptable.
Similarly, Rising from its 2nd Emergency Executive Meeting in less than one week,

which held in Lagos, on Monday, March 01, 2010, UNDEDSS, the Professor Pat Utomi-

led coalition of Niger Delta ethnic nationalities and civil society, has demanded that

Acting President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan set the ball rolling by immediately directing

that he sees “the invisible President”, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua.

“President Yar'Adua must cease to be Nigeria's leader, if his status continues to be

shrouded in secrecy, or if he is found to be incapacitated, or if he is found to be in

breach of the 1999 Constitution; and this processes must be concluded before or by

Tuesday, March 9, 2010!” demands UNDEDSS, the United Nigeria Energy Development

Security Strategy.
“The season of playing 'nice guy' to others' anti-democratic acts is definitely over,”

declared Professor Pat Utomi, even as he went on demystify Mrs. Turai Yar'Adua's

putative powers as to who can be allowed to gain access to President Yar'Adua, and

who cannot.
Professor Utomi reminded “all 150 million Nigerians that, by choosing to lead them as

President, Alhaji Yar'Adua, had willingly and wittingly made himself the peoples'

property. Nobody, including his family members, can stop Acting President Jonathan, as

the people's supreme agent, for now, from having unlimited access to his principal,

especially at this pivotal period of our struggling democracy.”

In like vein, Mr. Tony Uranta, UNDEDSS Secretary-General, asserted that “in the event

that the Acting President is hampered in any way, by any person, persons, group or

groups, Nigerians demand that Dr. Jonathan must deploy all powers at his command to

remove such obstacles immediately.”
The UNDEDSS Scribe posited further that “the Acting President must immediately

remove all those who have been compromised in the national security breach that saw

Nigerian troops being deployed, as in a coup d'état, without the knowledge or

authorization of the Commander-in-Chief. He must also, without further prevarication,

drop every other government official whose acts have bordered on treason or

insubordination!”
Using the stalled post-amnesty process as an example, Uranta warned that “the

anomaly of not having Jonathan fully in charge is causing grumblings in the creeks and

anomie in the nation at large; and, if not speedily and masterfully corrected, this

dangerous drifting of the nation could further stress existing strains on our nation's

fragile unity.”
UNDEDSS therefore demanded that “the Executive Council of the Federation and the

National Assembly should prove their allegiance to the Constitution and people of

Nigeria, by executing whichever constitutional procedure is necessary to compel

President Yar'Adua to cease being President of Nigeria, so he can better concentrate

on improving his health; and fully install Goodluck Jonathan as Nigeria's substantive

President, and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of Nigeria, before Tuesday,

March 9, 2010.”
Finally, UNDEDSS hailed the inclusion of esteemed national statesmen, retired General

Theophilus Y. Danjuma and Chief Isaac Jemide, into the governing process in acting

capacity.