Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and his Rivers State counterpart, Chibuike Amaechi, have said they are not losing sleep over the alleged plot by President Goodluck Jonathan to push for their impeachment, stating that the Presidency and the Peoples Democratic Party could not impeach them as the case of a former governor of Adamawa State, Murtala Nyako.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, John Odigie-Oyegun, had at a press conference on Wednesday alleged that Jonathan and the PDP were out to remove the governors of Edo, Nasarawa, Osun, Borno and Rivers states.
But Oshiomhole, through his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Kassim Afegbua, said he was popularly elected by the overwhelming majority of Edo people, stressing that “The thought of impeachment does not cross our hearts.
“First, what would be the rationale? Secondly, the APC has majority in the Assembly. Thirdly, the governor is on ground. Fourthly, he is performing. We are not losing sleep over that because we have capacity for decency when it comes to real issues of political engagement.”
He accused the PDP of impunity, which he said was fast eroding democratic principles in the country. “If the PDP is now engaged in a gestapo manner with a gale of impeachment here and there, and with clear-cut abuses, it is the responsibility of the media to expose such dubiety and save our democracy from collapse.”
In Rivers State, Amaechi and his followers said they were aware of the threat of impeachment in order to force the governor back to the PDP, but added that such threat would not work.
Describing the threat to make him return to the PDP as a dull dream and a wild goose chase, the governor, who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Tony Okocha, explained that the formal move by 25 members of the state House of Assembly to the APC on Wednesday had foreclosed any thought of his (Amaechi) removal as the state governor.
“It is a wild goose chase because no threat of impeachment from the Presidency will make the governor cave in. Twenty-five PDP Assembly members have all defected formerly to the APC, all in solidarity with the governor.
“We are aware of such threats of impeachment, but it is not working. The coffin has been nailed and there is nothing they (Presidency) can do about it,” he added.
Amaechi, however, said he would not quit politics as a result of the threat to impeach him or force him to join the PDP, adding that his political future remains in the hands of God and the people of the state.
On the recent impeachment of Murtala Nyako as the governor of Adamawa State, Amaechi said though he was worried that his colleague was removed, he said that the scenarios in Adamawa and Rivers states were different.
“When the lawmakers were all in the PDP was even when we thought that impeachment would happen. Now, everybody in Rivers State has resolved that Governor Chibuike Amaechi will serve out his eight years.
“People are defecting enmasse to APC. So, they need to come and break our ranks here before they can achieve their plan. The threat to impeach Amaechi so that he will return to the PDP will not work; it is wishy-washy, it is a dull dream.”
However, chairman of the PDP in Edo State, Dan Orbih, dismissed allegation by the APC national chairman, stressing that “We are looking anxiously towards the next rounds of elections in 2015 and 2016 when we shall teach Adams Oshiomhole a political lesson.”
Orbih said that although the PDP was not interested in impeaching Oshiomhole, the APC was under fear because information from the governor’s quarters indicated that he had committed impeachable offences.
“I also want to use this opportunity to call on the honourable members of the Edo State House of Assembly that there can be no smoke without fire.
“It appears that Oshiomhole has committed impeachable offences, hence, the fear expressed by Oyegun and himself that he could be impeached.
“For us as a party, we are not interested in his impeachment. But from the noise coming out of his quarters, it appears the man has been involved in many impeachable offences.”
On the allegations of impeachment in APC states raised by the APC national chairman, the PDP chairman said the opposition raised the alarm due to fear of defeat in 2015.
He said he did not see any reason non- legislative members would engage themselves in talks bothering on impeachment when the state legislators had the constitutional right to do so.
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