Ebonyi Assembly begins impeachment moves against Gov Elechi

Ebonyi State governor, Chief Martin Elechi, on Friday accused some key figures in the Federal Government and the Peoples Democratic Government of masterminding the impeachment plot against him.

The governor made the allegation just as an impeachment motion was passed against him by members of the Ebonyi House of Assembly.

In his response to the plot, Elechi named the Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim; Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party; Uche Secondus; and the National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh as those behind the move.

In the eight-count charge signed by fifteen lawmakers and read on the floor of the House by the Acting Leader, Ogbonnaya Nwifuru, Elechi was accused of gross misconduct.

The lawmakers said they endorsed the notice of impeachment served on Elechi because his alleged offence was a clear violation of the Constitution.

However, addressing journalists at the Executive Council Chambers of Government House, Abakaliki, the state capital, about the same time the impeachment motion was being moved at the House of Assembly, Elechi alleged that Anyim, Secondus, Metu and others within and outside the state offered financial inducement to the lawmakers to impeach him.

According to him, Anyim had earlier during a national caucus meeting of the PDP in Abuja moved a motion for his impeachment on the allegation that he, Elechi, was working against the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Elechi also said he was accused of meeting with former president Olusegun Obasanjo and former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako, to work against Jonathan.

Denying ever meeting with Obasanjo, whom he described as an in-law of Ebonyi State, or Nyako, whom he said he saw last during an expanded National Executive Council meeting of the PDP before Nyako’s impeachment, Elechi stressed that it was Anyim and his likes, through their activities, that were undermining Jonathan’s re-election bid in the state.

Elechi said, “I mentioned this as one of Anyim’s motion (at PDP caucus meeting) because it has come to the public domain.

“I was to be in that meeting but the notice came less than 24 hours and I had billed myself for other things, so I didn’t attend.

“I am relying now on the publications of various papers and other things I hear about Anyim.

“I didn’t exhaust all of them like his effort to stop the bond which we are eminently qualified for, he tried that but he failed.

“It is interesting for Nigerians to know that the decision to impeach the governor preceded the finding of justifiable reasons to do so.

“It is simply the case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

“The legislators must be convinced that an impeachment is justifiable before they can consent to it.

“But because there have been no justifiable reasons, many honourable members of Ebonyi State House of Assembly received threat messages to either append their signatures or risk assassination and/or a kidnap of their family members.

“Others were coerced from the National Headquarters of the PDP to give their bank particulars so that money will be paid into them.”