ABUJA— NATIONAL Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has waded into the on-going move by the Abia State House of Assembly to impeach the state’s Deputy Governor, Dr. Chima Nwafor. The move by Abuja is to save the Deputy Governor from being impeached.
The National Secretariat has also engaged Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State in a dialogue on the modalities to elect the chairman of the state executive committee of the party, who will hold forte till December 2005 nationwide elective congress.
Party leaders in the state, among them the state party chairman, Chief Uzondinma Okpara as well as the speaker and majority leader of the house were at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja yesterday where they were locked in a crucial meeting with the National Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbeh and some members of the NWC.
Also present at the meeting were Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, Chief Ojo Maduekwe and pioneer state chairman of the party, Chief Tony Ukasanya.
Dr. Nwafor’s alleged offence was that he constituted threat to the security of the state. Further particulars of the alleged offence have not been disclosed by the state legislature, but there were feelers that the offence is connected with the role the Deputy Governor played in the recent alarm raised by the Governor, Orji Uzor Kalu, alleging that the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih planned to kill him.
Kalu had said that the threat by Chief Anenih was issued through his Deputy who briefed him on his encounter with the Board of Trustees chairman at the Abuja Airport.
But the Deputy Governor had denied that he reported that Chief Anenih planned to kill Governor Kalu when he was invited to appear before the NWC of the party in Abuja. The NWC had consequently directed that Governor Kalu should apologise to Chief Anenih as well as the party and the Federal Government, which he disparaged when the war of words lingered.
Responding to the directive, Kalu had apologised to the party and the Federal Government but had refused to extend the same gesture to Chief Anenih on the grounds that he (Chief Anenih) was in court over the matter. But recently, the duo of Kalu and Anenih were reconciled by the Oba of Benin, Omo n'Oba Erediauwa.
It was however learnt that Governor Kalu has not been happy with the way his Deputy acted during the crisis by confirming the threat in Umuahia and denying it in Abuja, hence, he (Kalu) has quietly moved to ease him (Deputy Governor) out, using the instrumentality of the state legislature to push an impeachment process hinged on “threat to state security”.
Also yesterday, Governor Ngige met for many hours with Chief Ogbeh and Deputy National Chairman (South) and Leader of the Peace Committee looking into the Anambra crisis, Alhaji Shuaibu Oyedokun on how to elect a state chairman of the party following the removal of Chief Ifeatu Obi-Okoye, the former chairman who was said to have been removed because he is from the same local government with the governor.
