PDP is dead! De-register it immediately!- former Governor Sullivan Chime tells INEC; Attacks Deputy Senate President frontally

From: Madu Ezenoha, Enugu

Immediate former governor of Enugu State, Barr. Sullivan Chime Wednesday called on the Independent National Electoral Commission to de-register the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as a matter of urgency.

He said that the electoral body would have ample constitutional backing if it should take such drastic action, insisting that PDP has collapsed as a party.

The former governor predicted that the extent of dismemberment of his former party would become more manifest in the November governorship election in Anambra state, saying that PDP will not field any candidate in the election if care is not taken.

Chime also accused the Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu of masterminding protests and campaign of calumny against him since he made public his resignation from the PDP, and intention to join the All Progressives Congress, APC.

Chime who spoke to journalists at his Enugu residence, said that lies and blackmail against him were aimed at stopping him from joining the APC, insisting that nobody can stop him from officially registering with the party in an event scheduled for next Saturday.

The former governor specifically accused Ekweremadu of having told lies against him when he told the people of Aninri local government of the state during a civic reception for one of their sons that he, Chime, never appointing anybody from the area as either permanent secretary or commissioner throughout his eight years of two terms in office.

Aside from that, he alleged that meetings and protests especially of people from his Udi local government origin were being sponsored to insult and brand his past administration a total failure, in an effort to diminish his political value as according to him, the masterminds think that he is moving to APC because he is nursing a senatorial ambition.

He however stressed that his inevitable movement to APC was not because of personal interest but because a lot of people are looking up to him for where to go, boasting that if the crisis in PDP continues, APC will win Enugu state in 2019.

Debunking the allegation that he never appointed permanent secretaries and commissioners from Aninri during his administration, Chime listed Mr. Wilson Njoku, Emmanuel Ndubuisi and Benson N. Njoku as those he appointed permanent secretaries during his time; while Okezie Nwanjoku, Charles Aja and Prof. Chris Okolo were appointed commissioners at different times.

Chime reiterated his earlier comment that PDP was a dead party, and ought to have been de-registered by INEC, saying, “in a nutshell because of the collapse of PDP people started leaving. It’s like you are embarking on a journey of a known destination and your vehicle packs up, decides not to move.

“And maybe in an attempt to fix it what comes to you is that the engine has been stolen, the engine has been removed completely. You will have no choice than to look for another vehicle to continue your journey. That is the best way to describe what is happening. People are disembarking from the vehicle PDP and looking for vehicles to take them to where they want to be.”

“But since I announced my exit from the broken down vehicle of PDP after two years of leaving office I have been branded a total failure because some people thought and still think that I’m leaving or that I left PDP for the purpose of nursing an ambition to go to the Senate.

So their best option would be to bring me down. “There was one particular occasion, let me be a bit specific; in Aninri, I think reception was being held for one Mr. Aja who was then appointed director of works or so at IMT, and the Deputy Senate President so shamelessly accused me of having abandoned the people of Aninri, that throughout my tenure that I never appointed any permanent secretary, and that it was under the present governor that Aninri was given a permanent secretary, and you people published it.

“You people published it without crosschecking your facts. And he also claimed that Aninri didn’t have commissioners. I used the word shamelessly because somebody of that status, somebody who had been in state government as chief of staff, SSG, and had access to my administration should have crosschecked his facts, no matter how much he hated me; not to dish out lies,  unfounded lies,” he alleged.

He stated that the people of Umuneke clan from his local government area despite the provision of amenities like roads, water and electricity still came out recently to declare that he failed them woefully, “because somebody gave them money to meet after two years I had left and after they had come to thank me for whatever nice things I did for them or maybe they had come to thank me for having failed them woefully.”

The former governor said that there was no going back from joining the APC, the only viable national party as at today, and that he had already done wide consultations with the ward, local government, state and national leaders of APC who had assured him that he has a space in the party

.