Governor, Sullivan Chime of Enugu state has tongue lashed members of the National Assembly from the state, for shunning Enugu State rally for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Gov. Chime, described the state federal lawmakers as anti Jonathan, who are merely pretending to be supporting the president.
Only Senator Ayogu Eze representing Enugu North senatorial district of the state, attended the rally held at the Nnamdi Azikwe Stadium on Wednesday.
Governor Chime, while lashing out on those absentee National Assembly members said “Any person that is not present in this rally cannot be said to be supporting President Goodluck Jonathan.”
Reacting to the governor’s outburst, a pressure group in the state, Enugu Rescue Group said the governor is only trying to give wrong impression to the president.
The group, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Martin Okenwa, said: “Governor Chime’s comment is an irony”
“Because from the turbulent days of the struggle for the emergence of President Jonathan as the acting President to the successful efforts spearheaded by TAN to have the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, adopt Mr. President as its sole candidate, both Enugu State government and the governor are renowned for their opposition and hide-and-seek games.”
“Not only was Sullivan Chime, the only South East PDP governor who refused to collect the TAN registers to mobilise signatures in support of the President, but also a public knowledge that the governor took the entire State Executive Council and all the local government council chairmen to a birthday party in Umuahia on the day of the rally attended by all the other PDP South East governors.
“The Enugu rally was, therefore, a belated damage control and futile attempt to key himself into the Jonathan 2015 re-election, having seen that Pres. Jonathan had carried the day with his adoption by the PDP as its sole presidential candidate,” the statement added.
HOMELAND NEWS recalls that power shift in Enugu State had since the return of democracy in 1999 come with sharp divide down the spine of the unity of the people. From the tension that trailed the era of Gov. Chimaroke Nnamani in relation to prominent political leaders particularly Chief Jim Nwobodo to the reform introduced by the incumbent in his early days in office. The common belief in the state was that Sullivan Chime treated Chimaroke Nnamani in like manner as he, Nnamani treated Jim Nwobodo.
Now is another period to elect a new governor as Gov. Chime cannot continue in office in line with the constitution beyond May 29, 2015. There are deep concerns that whoever that will become governor should not continue the trend of settling down in office by “embarrassing” his predecessor. Perhaps this fear is responsible for the divisions manifesting even within the PDP.
