It is barely a fortnight when Hill Top United, a leading civil society organisation in Enugu State, asked the state House of Assembly to start the impeachment process against Governor Peter Mbah who was sworn in only last May 29, when professionals from the state have demanded his immediate removal for “being grossly incompetent and for unleashing a reign of terror on the people”.
The Alliance of Enugu State Professionals (AESP) in a statement signed in Enugu this morning by its president, Engineer Simon-Peter Nwobodo, and publicity secretary, Barrister Matthew Eze, said much as “everyone in Enugu knows that Mbah will be removed from office by the Enugu State Governorship and House of Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal because he was not qualified to run for public office and did he win the gubernatorial vote, he wants to manipulate constitutional provisions and remain in office for up to six months before the judiciary throws him out.
“But the House of Assembly can get him out within one month”.
Comparing Mbah to a cancer fast mestasizing to all parts of the body, including critical organs, the CSO said in the statement issued on Monday that it would be dangerous to allow Mbah to stay for up to six months in office.
The AESP stated: “By closing down 170 businesses in Enugu last Tuesday for not opening the previous day for fear of vicious attacks by the terrorist Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) which uses extreme brutality to force people and businesses in the Southeast to observe the Monday sit-at-home order and followed it up with a shoot-at-sight order to security forces resulting in the death of some traders protesting at the state’s largest open market, Mbah has shown his hand early enough to the people.
“Only a Hitler or any person moulded in his image can do these crazy things within a few weeks of assuming office”.
The professionals continued: “How can someone who claims that his priority is the radical transformation of the business and economic climate of Enugu State from a $$3.3 billion economy to a $30b economy start with massive business closures?
“The historic Ogbete Market is the state’s largest labour employer and over 5,000 families depend on it directly for their daily feeding, medical expenses, educational fees, rent payments, and transportation fares, yet Mbah enthusiastically shut it down even when he did not provide policemen and soldiers to protect them against attacks by IPOB terrorists implementing their illegal sit-at-home order”.
The CSO observed that under Mbah’s leadership, Enugu has experienced an unprecedented level of despondency and violence, recalling the politically motivated killing of Nelson Sylvester Ofunwa, a councillor in Nsukka Local Government Area, on July 16, and the setting on fire of a part of Mbah’ Pinnacle Oil and Gas Company petrol station on Chime Avenue in New Haven, Enugu, by IPOB terrorists last June 19.
The Enugu professionals regretted that the current situation “is such that our state, reputed for fun and nightlife, is now living with melancholy”, remarking that Enugu, widely regarded as the “most peaceful state in the Southeast until Mbah connived with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to impose himself on us, is now defined by violence.
“The Enugu State House of Assembly owes our people the duty of removing him from office within one month so that our state can still be salvaged.
“If wait for a whole six months for the judiciary to get rid of Mbah, there may not be anything left to salvage in the state”.