Barrister Eugene Odo-led Enugu State House of Assembly has, on two occasions in the past three months, ‘ordered’ Governor Sullivan Chime to remove two of his key commissioners from office. The commissioners, Luke Mammel and Frank Asogwa of Works and Local Government matters respectively, were ordered removed by the law makers on charges bordering on fraud, incompetence and blackmail. In the case of Mammel, the legislators passed a resolution directing Governor Chime to remove him as commissioner, but in that of Asogwa, they ordered (mandated) the governor to immediately suspend him pending outcome of investigations into the allegations.
To demonstrate the seriousness of their action, the 24-member House strictly warned Asogwa, a law professor, to stop parading himself as commissioner in Enugu state. The law makers moved a step further to urge members of the public to stop relating with Asogwa as commissioner, warning that so doing would be at the defaulter’s risk.
Paul Anikwe, deputy chief whip and House committee chairman on judiciary, public petitions, ethics and privileges, who, in particular, brought the allegations against Commissioner Asogwa before the resumed sitting of the House on Thursday January 29, claimed that he (Asogwa) failed to implement local government and development areas guidelines as passed by the House, in addition to demanding and collecting monies illegally from council chairmen in the state. Hon. Anikwe alleged that Asogwa colluded with local government chairmen in the state to deduct N3.5million to engage a consultant to carry out an audit of local government teachers. Part of the allegations against Asogwa by Anikwe was extortion of N100, 000.00 from each of the seventeen local government areas every month. The meaning of this is that Asogwa fraudulently gets paid N1.7million monthly from the state’s local government accounts. The commissioner is, also, amongst other things, accused of coaxing the councils into purchasing a hilux jeep for him.
Intriguingly, despite Asogwa’s spirited efforts to defend himself over the charges at the floor of the house on February 3, the legislators went ahead to convict him, passing a resolution mandating (forcing) Governor Chime to suspend him as commissioner. Commissioner Asogwa, to no avail, urged the House to prevail on his accusers to produce documentary evidences to, at least, prove some of the allegations against him.
As an advocate of due process, Chime had in the case of Mammel, after legal interpretations of the resolution, redeployed him from Ministry of Works to that of Transport. And the legislators, obviously, did not like the manner Chime implemented the Mammel resolution, as they wanted Mammel entirely removed. This seems to be the more reason the legislators, this time around, became more stringent in their resolution mandating the governor to suspend Asogwa.
All in all, KlinReports believes that, apart from the law makers being sponsored by the opposition to arm-twist Governor Chime, they are, also, on a vengeance mission against some of the vital officials of Chime government.
Logic stands out in the assertion that there are unseen hands currently deploying the Odo-led Assembly against the government of Chime. Were the assembly men not willing tools of the opposition to unsettle Chime, would they not have opted for a round table dialogue with him (Chime) to address the issue of alleged misdemeanors of his officials? Put differently, if the law makers did not mean any malice against Chime in their actions, why would they (law makers) just wield the sledge hammer on two of his key commissioners, issuing seemingly outlandish ‘legislative’ orders to him to either remove or suspend them? Why?
Also, KlinReports observes that the legislators are, as far as their resolutions concerning Mammel and Asogwa are concerned, carrying out personal vendetta. In the case of Mammel, some of the legislators had, using fronts, jostled for road reconstruction contracts when Mammel was commissioner for works. But because their fronts could not win the contracts following their short-comings, the law makers (most of whom have a hangover of corruption from the previous regime) chose to use their positions as law makers to move against Mammel.
Of course, Asogwa’s case is no different, as the legislators (especially, Anikwe, his accuser) felt he was becoming too powerful, arrogant and snobbish to him and his likes. For instance, Anikwe, in an interview with some journalists, complained that Asogwa, once, invited him and Hon. Cletus Enebe to a seminar in Enugu as resource persons, but, till today, refused to pay them. Anikwe, similarly, claimed that Asogwa had, on one occasion in the presence of Governor Chime, accused him of taking N500, 000.00 from his Development Area in order to attract one government favor or the other to them. Anikwe sees this as blackmail. The foregoing have, no doubt, sold out the legislators as being biased in their recent resolutions, ordering Chime to remove his officials from office.
And there is no gainsaying the fact that this is an unhealthy development in the state. A situation whereby legislators, who belong to the same political party (People’s Democratic Party) cannot take their governor into confidence before going gaga on his officials definitely portends danger.
Apart from the opposition latching on the on-going shenanigan of the House to regroup against Chime government, these disgruntled legislators, especially, the second or third term serving ones are, from all indications, generally angry that Chime is not as extravagant as Nnamani in splashing the common wealth of Enugu people on them. It is a truism that former Governor Nnamani spoilt this class of law makers, economically empowering them to high heavens. For instance, Anikwe is set to open an ultra-modern hotel he built in the Market Garden area of Enugu metropolis with his loot in the Nnmani era later this month. Nnamani had shared out acres of public lands, including the Market and Zoological Gardens, to these law makers and other cronies of his before he left office, and because Governor Chime appears unwilling to continue with this negative legacy, these legislators are crying blue murder.
Some of these so-called law makers, it would be recalled, were drafted from their carpentry workshops into law making by former Governor Nnamani. Some had to abandon their patent medicine trade for the hallowed chambers of Enugu House, while some staggered into law making from their poultry farms.
KlinReports learned that these anti-Chime law makers are led by Abel Chukwu (former speaker), Paul Anikwe and Cletus Enebe (also, one time speaker). Even at that, it is observed that almost all the members of the committee set up by the House to investigate the allegations against Asogwa are core-Nnamani legislators whose sole aim is ordinarily to upset the government of Chime and derail its four-point agenda. The committee members include Johnny Obidinma (representing Oji River); Dennis Agbo (Enugu East Urban); Chika Eneh (Udi South); Nze Michael Onyeze (Igbo Eze North 1) and Tony Chigbo (Uzo Uwani).
It was learnt that Speaker Odo, a political neophyte, is just being manipulated by these old horses in the House to achieve their selfish political ends. And when the ambitious Odo would realize the actual intention of this group of legislators manipulating him, it might be too late in the day for him to make amends. What Odo fails to realize is that he would not have lasted three months as speaker of Enugu House were it during the regime of Nnamani. Nnamani would have, since, hauled Odo out of the House leadership to be replaced with a more pliant legislator.
But Chime continues to tolerate Odo’s glaring offensives and effronteries against him as speaker with equanimity. Hours before the appellate court delivered its historic verdict in favor of Chime, January last year, everybody knew that Odo had virtually assumed the governor (ship) of the state. Odo had anticipated that Chime would lose his appeal against the lower court’s judgment, and he was already acknowledging salutations as ‘Your Excellency’ from his fans. The only deduction to make here is that Odo takes Chime’s calm disposition for weakness.
A political analyst describes members of the current Enugu House as ingrates who have, in a hurry, forgotten the adverse media publicity which the sponsor of their overseas jamboree in the name of seminar last year attracted to Governor Chime. Chime’s government reportedly spent about N200 million on each of the 24-member legislature currently plotting his downfall. This is apart from other gestures of Chime government towards the legislators.
It is clear that Enugu law makers are posing for more serious fights against Chime, as they have invited chairman of Nsukka council area in connection with fraud allegations against Asogwa. Even the fact that Association of Local Government of Nigeria (ALGON), Enugu state chapter, has given Commissioner Asogwa a clean bill, saying he (Asogwa) neither coaxed them into buying him a hilux jeep nor paying him any amount of money monthly, among other things, does not seem to make any sense to the legislators.
All this, therefore, go to show that there are more to the legislators’ actions than meets the ordinary eye. But time will expose all.
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