As Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime’s long absence from official duty continues to generate controversy, the state chapter of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), has urged the state House of Assembly to pass a resolution to swear-in the acting governor, Mr.? Sunday Onyebuchi, as the substantive governor of the state.
In an interview with LEADERSHIP SUNDAY, CPC leader and governorshipl candidate during the 2011 general elections, Mr.OsitaOkechukwu, urged the state’s Chief Judge, Hon. Justice Innocent Umezulike to take the necessary legal steps to ensure that the acting governor replaces Chime without further delay.
Governor Chime has been away from the state since September 2011 ostensibly on vacation, a development which threw up his deputy as acting governor of the state.
But the CPC chieftain argued that the acting governor lacked the constitutional powers to carry out the functions of an executive governor, having not been sworn in as governor by the state chief judge.
Though Chime’s aides have consistently maintained that he (governor) is enjoying his accumulated leave abroad, speculations are rife that he had been hospitalised abroad since he left the shores of the country.
Okechukwu said it had become necessary to swear-in Onyebuchi as governor following what he described as the collapse of governance in the state.