After three weeks of investigations, the panel set up to investigate allegations against Enugu State Deputy Governor, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi submitted its report to the State Assembly leading to his impeachment on Tuesday, August 26.
Onyebuchi, who said he was out to prove his innocence, told newsmen few hours after he was impeached that it did not come to him as a surprise. He accused the panel of not hiding their bias throughout the period of its sitting. Thus he disclosed that his lawyers had been preparing and would immediately challenge the impeachment in court.
The impeached deputy governor insisted that the allegations against him were diversionary, claiming that his offence was his interest in the Enugu East senatorial position which, according to him, has been reserved for the Chief of Staff, Government House, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo.
According to him: “My problem started when I expressed interest to contest for the Senate seat of Enugu East Senatorial zone, coincidentally against the preferred candidate of the governor. Initially, they didn’t know I will make any impact, they felt they had everything, but when I started making consultations, people I never expected started giving me encouragement and support. He became uncomfortable. There was a time I received information from somebody that if I did not step down, this move will be made against me. So, I did not believe it and I made it clear before now that it was from the day I expressed interest that I started noticing some hostile attitude from the governor. So, it is not about chicken because when they said chicken, they removed the chicken, they did not give me the proceeds of the chicken or tell me where it is and I did not complain. They saw that I was in Onitsha and could not provide any evidence that the governor instructed me, what they did was to go and forge a manifest backdated and you know when the governor is on vacation, you cannot have his manifest, but they mistakenly got a manifest, back- dated it and labelled it governor’s manifest when the governor was on vacation.” He spoke further on this and more. PETRUS OBI covered the interactive session. Excerpts:
With the PDP door shot against you already, are you now planning to defect to APC?
It is not true and there is no truth to it whatsoever. I am a good party loyalist and it is the PDP that brought me where I am and I don’t have any reason to turn my back on the PDP. I will remain with the PDP whether I am contesting or not, I will not turn my back on the party that brought me to where I am. If they want to remove me because they suspect that I may join another party, removing me under this circumstance will even make me bitter enough to want to join another party. But I am saying that I will not, because I owe something to PDP and will remain in PDP to pay that debt.
How do you see your impeachment?
I do not think that the impeachment took place today (Tuesday); for me it took place the day the panel was constituted and held their first sitting because from that day the panel could not hide their bias. You know what happened with the state House of Assembly when they signed my impeachment also happened with the panel when they were set up. Members of the assembly signed the impeachment before the allegations were made known to them; and I have had the opportunity to read the report of the panel. Yesterday (Monday) evening, a member of the panel reached me and told me that his conscience was disturbing him that he will reach me later to talk to me but he made available to me a copy of the report when I insisted that if he wants to reach me he should make available to me a copy of the report. So, I have had the opportunity of going through the report and I want to say that the report is as watery, as frivolous as the allegations themselves.
Anyone who has been following the proceedings will agree with me that the report was written by the government lawyer. So, I can say that I am not very surprised by the decision of the panel and I can also say that I am not disappointed. I would have been surprised if they had done anything differently. They had difficulty hiding their bias as I said. Any human being, who is doing anything honest and transparent, will naturally be happy to have it witnessed by the public, especially, the media. We have had so many impeachments in the past and I know that no panel has sat in camera because it’s not a secret thing. The allegations against me were read on the floor of the House before newsmen, so one would wonder why they chose to sit in camera if they intended to do anything honest or transparent.
Will the impeachment mark the end of your battle with your boss, the governor?
I am not disappointed and I want to use this opportunity to thank the people of the state and other Nigerians who have offered their prayers for me during the past few weeks for their encouragement and support. So, many of them I do not know before now, came out to support me because they believed that injustice to one is injustice to all. I will thank them and tell them that it is not over and as I have said, that after the panel of man, we have a panel where the truth cannot be suppressed. If you read the report, you will know that it took the submissions of the government counsel and suppressed my own views to justify the conclusion already reached before the commencement of the sitting.
One thing that I know that has come out of this is that sometimes there are positive records and sometimes negative records. I think I broke a record with this impeachment when I said I am the first office holder to be impeached from office without allegation of financial impropriety. I took time to read the allegations of all those who were impeached even in the last and present administrations and I see that none was done without allegation of financial impropriety. In each of those cases, there must be financial impropriety, so I am making record or history as the first to be impeached without fraud which leaves for me my integrity intact. I will say that I will continue to work for the people of the state. I will continue to offer them my services; they have supported me when they gave me their mandate, prayers and support. And I will continue to offer my services to them, I believe I have more to offer. My lawyers will be finalizing the suit they will be filing in a matter of days. Because as I said immediately the commencement of sitting, I met with my lawyers and we were of the conclusion that the panel will find me guilty. Because you see a situation where they saw a video that showed that I was in Onitsha; that I was there in time; by the time you read the report you will be laughing to yourselves. They said that the video shows that I was there; but that where I sat was unbefitting of a representative of the governor. And, in fact, it is embarrassing and, therefore, they were of the conclusion that even though I was there, that I was not there as representative of the governor or deputy governor but in my capacity as Sunday Onyebuchi. They went further to say that I dissipated energy trying to prove that there exists a poultry in government house; that they were not set up to investigate government house and, therefore, all those efforts did not help in anyway. That they were set up to prove that I operated a poultry farm, and that they are convinced. One would be surprised for a lawyer to say that ignorance of the law is no excuse when there was no law because the House of Assembly in their notice said a ‘resolution of the House’; and one would expect that they will know the difference between a resolution and a law. So, if you say that ignorance of the law is no excuse, it’s understandable but in this case was there a law? The answer is in the negative.
What is your advice to whoever is likely to be your successor?
For whoever would be taking over from me, I will advise him not to operate poultry, rather he should concentrate on rearing ostriches, monkeys, antelopes and if he must operate poultry, let him ensure that he does it with public fund so that he won’t have the same experience that I have had. If he operates it with a public fund, if he must operate a poultry, that’s okay otherwise let him concentrate on ostriches, monkeys, antelopes and other animals. That’s the advice I will give and I am happy, I am relieved and life goes on; I am hopeful of getting justice from the judiciary but even if that fails, I am still confident that God in His own way and time will give me justice.
Are you still in the Enugu East senatorial race?
In a few days’ time, I may be travelling out to give attention to my health; when I come back, I will give full attention to my senatorial aspiration and I am confident that the people having seen that I was innocent of all the charges, from the expressions and comments I got, I believe that the voice of the people is the voice of God. I am confident that I still enjoy the confidence of the people; I am confident that I enjoy their support and I believe it is appropriate that I tap into the goodwill. So, I am going ahead.
With your impeachment, you believe you are still qualified to run?
Definitely if you read the constitution very well or Supreme Court judgments, even in the case of Rotimi Amaechi, you will see that if you are removed by a court or administrative panel and they specified the reasons; embezzlement, fraud or financial, check it out. But if you are removed because of chicken or because you operated a poultry farm, I don’t think that the law disqualifies me from contesting. We will leave it; by the time you read the report, you judge for yourself and the people of Enugu State will also judge for themselves. If the opinion of the members of the House which concluded that those allegations are gross misconduct…they will be able to know the weight of such opinion and they will leave that to judicial interpretation. But I know that I am still eligible to contest and I am going ahead.
Are you convinced that you proved your case before the panel?
My lawyers put up a very wonderful performance even in the admiration of those who were working on the other side. And I believe the case being a very straight forward one, we were able to prove that I did not in any way commit any offence that will justify my being removed by impeachment. We were able to convince them that in all the these allegations… because the panel even went further to start bringing cases that were not mentioned in the notice of impeachment. They went outside that when they saw that what they had was very watery. They went outside that to start bringing other things that were not mentioned in the impeachment notice. So, I am convinced and I am happy that I have been able to put my story across and the people have accepted that; God, I believe, has accepted that. As I said, one day we will be hoping that we will have an Assembly that will be representing the interest of the people of the state rather than that of the governor or a few other individuals. The members are elected to represent their constituencies; if they had listened to the voices from their constituencies, they would have taken a different position. But they listened to a single voice and took a position. So, I am praying that one day we will get to that stage where those elected to represent the people actually represent and carry the people along.
If I have not carried myself well while serving the people, I do not think I would have received the kind of support, prayers and encouragement that I received in the past three weeks. So, I am happy people still appreciate good conduct and I believe those who may still find themselves in such positions or other positions of authority should conduct themselves well knowing that they are not only accountable to an individual but also accountable to the people. While the whole thing is intended to discourage me from continuing with my senatorial ambition, I want to say that it has rather encouraged me based on the support I have been receiving. So, I think it has achieved the opposite for them because I am more emboldened; I am more encouraged and I believe with God, success will be mine. The Sun
