Enugu State House of Assembly, derisively referred to as docile, last Monday, cleaned its sleepy eyes at the twilight of the administration, seeking to impeach Governor Sullivan Chime over alleged financial misconduct, forgery and abuse of office. The House, which had had a convivial relationship with the executive, rose in unison, last month, against alleged recklessness of Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, ENSUBEB, in the award of N3.6 billion contract for the prefabrication and renovation of 500 primary and secondary schools in state which its Chairman,Ms Nneka Onuorah had admitted before the House was poorly handled.
Not daunted, the House passed resolutions condemning the concession of Enugu city water supply for 25 years to a firm. The concession would, if in place, amount to 600% increase on water rate to Enugu residents. The resolution also stopped the executive from the allocation of land in the International Conference Centre, ICC, stop the sale of land at the old Eastern Nigeria Industrial Centre situated at Zik Avenue. The land adjacent to the Assembly Complex is presently under construction by Park and Shop.
Chime’s position showed that the House cannot succeed in their bid to impeach him because the window of opportunity is finite.
Chime told newsmen,”They(House) called them(heads of departments) and were questioning them on all sorts of things that happened even in my first tenure. Their dream impeachment will never see the light of day. I want my defence to see the light of day. They are not aware of the constitutional provisions relating to impeachment. The office of governor is not like Speaker that you can blow siren to the office and go home with Okada.
“Office of governor is a very serious office. You don’t just wake one morning and you start thinking of impeachment. The section that deals with impeachment is Section 188. It deals with how the governor or deputy will be removed from office.
“At least one-third of the House is required to sign a notice of allegation of gross misconduct against the holder of the office. The House has 24 members. Eight of them are expected to sign that notice alleging that I am guilty.
*Chime
“Under Subsection 2, the Speaker is expected to have received the notice of allegations, cause a copy of that notice to be served on me within seven days. After they go through that hurdle, within 14 days of presentation of the notice to the Speaker, the House is enjoined to pass a resolution, stating that the allegations should be investigated. I am referring to Subsection 3.
“The Speaker must get the House to resolve by motion the resolution which must be supported by two-third of its members. That is Subsection 4. And it must be by all members of the House. So all this talk about suspension of House members is nonsense. So long as you are a member, you must be part of this.
“So, two-third of all the members, in our case, is sixteen. I am quite sure they know what they doing. I do not know the stage they are in now. Is it the stage of presenting the allegations or what? The constitution requires two-third to pass the resolution. Nobody has served me the notice of allegations. By their own showing, they are 14 members including the Speaker who should not be counted. So they are 13. That is why they have not activated anything.
“They need 14 days to get the notice of allegations from House members. When that happens, they will require another seven days to pass the resolution. If they are successful, the Chief Judge will be enjoined by the Speaker to constitute a seven-man panel and submit its report within three months. So, I am not quite sure if they are investigating me or the incoming governor. Because before they even set up the panel, I am out of this place”.
Speaker Odoh explained the reason behind the Chime impeachment move to Sunday Vanguard, “Before you reallocate funds or do virement, it must be sent to the legislature for approval. If you alter the budget that has been approved by the House without their consent, it is forgery.
“I challenge Chime to a public debate,let him come out and explain to the public what reallocation or virement of public funds means. He should provide documents for approval from the House and I will provide mine. I assure you, he will run away. If he is clean, he should come to a television debate with me.”
Frowning at the development, a lawyer, Mr.Ray Nnaji, said, “The allegation that Chime forged the supplementary budget, appropriation law 2012 was to me an allegation, not until he made comments which i heard on the radio saying that he altered and moved allocations from one section to another section.
“In law, it is called virement. And if an executive must engage in virement, he must send the same appropriation law back to the House for the House to do the needful and send it back to the executive.
“For the governor to what he did is an alteration.
“The governor himself who is a lawyer is supposed to have known the implication of what he did which means he is no longer denying the fact that he altered the supplementary budget of 2012. By that statement i heard on the network news, where he (Chime)was saying as admission, that actually engaged in reallocation of funds from one section to another. You cannot do virement with executive fiat.
“He does not have such right. He has to face that law. We the indigenes of Enugu State are not going to take it lightly.
“I thought the House was joking until I heard his voice, admitting that part. I will petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to come in immediately. If EFCC fails to move, i will go to court and compel them to do that. I will not waste time to that. I was thinking it was allegation until he (Chime) used his mouth to say he reallocated. What do you mean by that? It is virement. It is not done executive fiat. We have separation of powers. Your power (Chime) is to sign a bill into law. And once it is signed, you (Chime) cannot alter it. That ‘a’ that is there when you signed it must be there. If you want to change that ‘a’ you must take it back to the people that have the right to do so which is the legislature”.
The All Progressives Congress, APC, Chairman, Enugu State chapter, Mr. Ben Nwoye, lamented the House had known about the alleged forgery since 2012 and did nothing.
He said,”This should not come to Enugu people as a surprise. Chime’s dictatorship has been there. Odoh has been hiding it.
The question is, have the checks and balance worked? Before now, when the governor went on a protracted medical vacation and breached the law by not coming back at the specified time, it was Odoh that gave him legislative backing.
“During the impeachment of former deputy governor, Sunday Onyebuchi, Odoh also gave him legislative backing. The question is, where did they part ways? He who seeks equity must come with clean hands. They have run Enugu State as a personal enterprise. The change in guard at the centre will ensure they do not go unpunished.”
Source:vanguardngr
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