Enugu 'Chicken' Impeachment A Ruse—Says HURIWA
A pro-democracy Non-Governmental organization-Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria [HURIWA] has condemned as political gambling and a ruse that constitute an unconstitutional conduct, the move by the Enugu state House of Assembly to impeach the Deputy Governor Mr. Onyebuchi Sunday over alleged rearing of chickens in the government house in Enugu state.
The Rights Group also affirmed that should the decision of the 'kangaroo' impeachment panel be adopted and the Enugu state House of Assembly proceeds to unseat the Deputy Governor then the action would amount to the greatest disservice to the Nigerian constitution and indeed will rubbish the impeachment clause inserted in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria of 1999 [as amended] and this will create the impression in the global community that Nigeria has become a 'chicken republic' whereby anything goes.
Citing section 188[2] of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria [as amended] the Rights group said there is no where the rearing of chickens within the precincts of government house in Nigeria constituted an impeachable offence just as it asserted that the comprehensive response offered by the embattled deputy governor has rationally exposed the dare- devil political undercurrents surrounding the sinister plot to unseat the deputy governor just so as to satisfy the whims and caprices of the little 'political god' of Enugu state and his hatchet plotters who are bent on foisting their choice candidates for all available political positions in the coming 2015 general elections.
HURIWA in a statement to the media signed jointly by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Ms. Zainab Yusuf therefore asked the national secretariat of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] and leading political stakeholders in the South East to intervene to put a stop to the ongoing charade in the Enugu state House of Assembly to save the South East from the opprobrium that the illegal impeachment process has attracted from across the globe.
HURIWA said thus; "We condemn this attempt by the Enugu state House of Assembly to rubbish the provisions of the constitution of Nigeria in their hasty but thoughtless attempts to satisfy their pay master by removing the Deputy Governor who in the last seven years has served that state meritoriously even in the periods of 'mysterious absence' of the state chief executive who often travelled for 'medical' reasons. We urge the Enugu state House of Assembly to have a rethink so as to save the South East from the disgrace that it is trying to foist on the zone through this corrupt impeachment proceeding. A word is enough for the wise.
There is no where in the whole wide World that tending of live animals or birds constitute an offence. Indeed it does not make sense that a state government battling with the high level of unemployment among the youth could be seen fighting a state official that has shown exemplary character of embracing self employment module."