The Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Eugene Odo, has cried out over the withdrawal of security personnel attached to him allegedly on the orders of Governor Sullivan Chime.
DAILY POST gathered that they were withdrawn Friday night in spite of the intervention of the State Governor-elect, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, in the face-off between the outgoing governor and the faction of 15 lawmakers led by Speaker, Hon. Odo.
Ugwuanyi had met with both Odo and the faction of nine lawmakers led by Hon. Chinedu Nwamba (factional speaker) and both camps agreed to sheath their swords and return to status quo.
But apparently not satisfied with the truce brokered by the Governor-elect, Governor Chime was said to have sent his security aides after the opposing lawmakers to recover their official vehicles.
It was, however, gathered that they could not recover the vehicles as some of the lawmakers have gone into hiding.
A source close to the Speaker said the lawmaker received with rude shock Friday evening, when his security aides informed him that they had received instructions to return to base.
He alleged that “the State Ciommissioner of Police, Abubakar Adamu Mohammed, acting on the directive of the governor, sent signals ordering policemen attached to Odo to return”.
Odo alongside 14 other members of the House, had on Monday passed a resolution ordering the Clerk of the House, Christopher Chukwurah to serve impeachment notice on Chime for alleged financial misappropriation and other constitutional breaches. Chime in a bid to stop his impeachment, mobilized eight members of the House to suspend Odo, alongside all principal officers of the House. They G8 also elected a new “speaker” in Chinedu Nwamba, who had also received the nod of the governor and the Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party, Ikeje Asogwa, who swiftly send a congratulatory message to Nwamba.
Regretting the development, and raising an alarm of how his life and that of the family members were now in danger, the Speaker stressed that it was wrong for the Commissioner of Police to act on the directive knowing that his group had majority of members against the dissident eight members being shielded by the governor.
The embattled Speaker said: “Our life is in danger and now in the hands of Sullivan Chime and Police Commissioner in Enugu.
“On the instruction of the Governor this evening, the Police Commissioner has withdrawn the security details attached to me as Speaker of the House of Assembly.
“This is the Police that is supposed to protect me as long as the problem in the House is on. They have decided to be unlawful and I want the people of Enugu State to know that this is the situation at the moment and that they should hold Chime or the Police Commissioner responsible should anything happen to any of us”.
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