Did the Assembly do the bidding of Governor Sullivan Chime by impeaching Mr. Onyebuchi? As far as members of the Enugu State House of Assembly are concerned, we were the ones that moved the motion; we raised the allegations against him (Onyebuchi) and I believe the question you just asked is really uncalled for. If we were not convinced; we would not have moved that motion in the first place. And be that as it may, as the constitution stipulates, it was also passed to the Chief Judge to constitute a panel, which on its own —independent of the house —found that our allegations were true and it was proven.
Doing the governor’s bidding is neither here nor there – this is solely a legislative matter. (Chime was accused of playing God by influencing the Assembly to impeach his deputy.) I don’t understand what you mean by ‘the governor was playing god.’ As far as we are concerned, the governor has no hand in this. This is solely the House’s business and one of the powers of the House is to commence impeachment proceedings against any public officer that runs foul of the Constitution.
But in his statements before the panel, Onyebuchi insisted he was innocent and was being witch-hunted.
Well, that is his personal opinion.
He said he would go to court. Don’t you think he has a case?
Like every Nigerian, he has the right to go to court.
But is it not odd to remove just a few months to the end of the tenure of the administration?
Unfortunately, we do not keep time; even if you run foul of the law 24 hours to end of tenure and the House sees the need to start impeachment proceedings, of course, the House will start it. It has nothing to do with timing – timing is irrelevant to us.
It is widely believed that the allegations against Onyebuchi were flimsy, particularly the one concerning the poultry.
Is that your own personal opinion?
It is the general opinion.
I also have a feel of the general opinion and I can assure you that that is not the general opinion. That might be your own opinion or you are just looking at the views of a minute section of the public. If it were flimsy, the seven-man panel did not think so; so we were justified. I mean if they were flimsy, the seven-man panel would have just thrown the allegations out.
What is the crime in running a poultry farm in a residential environment?
Two things: One, he is a public servant. He ran a commercial venture. He, in his testimony, alluded to his marketing manager. He mentioned this during the sitting of the panel. You cannot run a commercial venture in a public building, or as a public servant. It is definitely against the law.
Two, the environmental hazard of running such a large poultry farm in a residential area is bad. In fact, the House did move a motion in that regard, banning it and this was long before this matter came up and he was aware. If he says he is not aware, it is an afterthought as far as I am concerned.
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