A pro-democracy non-governmental organisation, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has condemned as political gambling and a ruse that constitutes an unconstitutional conduct, the move by the Enugu State House of Assembly to impeach the Deputy Governor Sunday Onyebuchi, over alleged rearing of chicken in the Government House, Enugu.

The rights group also said 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 people 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) (b) of the constitution, the rights group said there is nowhere the rearing of chickens within the precincts of government house in Nigeria constituted an impeachable offence, asserting that the comprehensive response offered by the embattled deputy governor has rationally exposed the dare-devil political undercurrents surrounding the sinister plot 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, which disclosed this in a statement to News Express signed jointly by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and National Media Affairs Director, Ms Zainab Yusuf, therefore called on the national secretariat of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and leading political stakeholders in the South-East to intervene and save the South-East from the opprobrium that the illegal impeachment process has attracted from across the globe.

HURIWA averred: “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 periods of ‘mysterious absence’ of the state chief executive, who often travelled for ‘medical’ reasons. We urge the Enugu 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. There is nowhere in the 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.”

•Photo shows impeached Enugu Deputy Governor Sunday Onyebuchi.

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