Attempts to fly ailing Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State back to
the country in December from India to celebrate Christmas and New Year
with his family proved abortive following the deterioration of his
health during the trip, a competent source told LEADERSHIP yesterday.
The entire Government House, Enugu, and Chime’s personal residence in
Udi, his country home, were lavishly decorated with Christmas trees and
lightings a week before Christmas as part of preparations to receive
the governor, who ostensibly left the country in September 2012 to spend
his accumulated leave abroad.
According to the source, the governor who is suspected to be
suffering from terminal disease had a relapse when he arrived in London
from India, forcing his aides and relatives who accompanied him on the
trip to take him back to his hospital bed in India.
The source said that the decision to bring him back to the country to
celebrate Christmas and New Year was based on the need to douse the
tension in the state generated by his long absence from duty.
Governor Chime had, prior to his departure from the country,
addressed a letter to the speaker, Enugu State House of Assembly,
Barrister Eugene Odo, indicating that he was travelling abroad to spend
his accumulated leave, but, according to sources, the letter did not
specify the duration of the leave, neither was it brought to the notice
of several members of the legislature.
The deputy governor, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi, has since then been
standing in as acting governor, but sources close to Government House,
Enugu, alleged that Onyebuchi has limited functions since he cannot
award contracts or approve expenditure worth more than a million naira.
There are strong indications that the state House of Assembly would
on resumption from Christmas and New Year recess deliberate on the
whereabouts of the governor and, according to a member of the house,
“take appropriate action”.
According to section 189(1) of the Constitution of the Federal
Republic of Nigeria (as amended), “the governor or deputy governor of a
state shall cease to hold office if (a) by a resolution passed by
two-thirds majority of all members of the executive council of the
state, it is declared that the governor or deputy governor is incapable
of discharging the functions of his office; and (b) the declaration in
paragraph (a) of this sub-section is verified, after such medical
examination as may be necessary by a medical panel established under
sub-section in its report to the speaker of the House of Assembly.”
And sub-section 2 says that “where the medical panel certifies in its
report that in its opinion the governor or deputy governor is suffering
from such infirmity of body or mind as renders him permanently
incapable of discharging the functions of his office, a notice thereof
signed by the speaker of the House of Assembly shall be published in the
official gazettee of the government of the state”.
The governor or deputy governor, according to sub-section (3), “shall
cease to hold office as from the date of publication of the notice of
the medical report pursuant to subsection (2) of this section...”
Meanwhile, the leadership of Enugu State Development Association,
ESDA, has said it would meet with the acting governor soon to get a clue
on the whereabouts of Governor Chime and the nature of his ill-health.
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