The Archbishop of the Enugu Province, Anglican Communion, the Most Rev. Emmanuel Chukwuma, Thursday, blasted Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha over his persistent attacks on the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu.
Okorocha, who is the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Governors’ Forum, has vowed to remove Ekweremadu and replace him with the Senator elect from Imo State, Mr Ben Uwajumogu.
Speaking when members of the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, visited him at the Archbishop’s place in Enugu, the cleric maintained that Okorocha was pursuing anti-Igbo agenda.
The students, who were in their hundreds, took over Enugu streets protesting the plan by the APC to remove Ekweremadu. From the Archbishop’s place, the moved to the Enugu Government House, where they were received by the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Charles Ndukwe.
While addressing them, Chukwuma declared: “We are saying that the Governor of Imo State should apologize to Ekweremadu because he has no right to be harassing him.
“The person who is going to the Senate under the APC is coming just for the first term; whether you like it or not, he must come and pay homage to Ekweremadu.
“How can you as a Governor who is just sponsoring one person, for the first time be threatening that you will remove Ekweremadu? It is not possible.
“What I am saying is that Okorocha should apologize and he should know that he is either an Igbo man or a bastard Igbo.
“He is a bastard Igbo if he does not apologize and we are ready to disown him because he is not in the same page with us as an Igbo man. If he was sent by agents from outside, they have failed.”
The Archbishop, who equally accused the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami of derailing the country’s democracy, urged him to throw-in the towel.
According to him, “Ekweremadu’s election as the Deputy Senate President was absolutely constitutional; he was elected by the entire Senate made up of members of different political parties.
“So, if the Senate does not complain, I don’t know why the Attorney General should be behind this course. I am calling for his resignation; he must resign because he is the cause of all these problems. His continuous stay in office is a threat to democracy”.
He further stated that “any attempt to ridicule or rubbish Ekweremadu will not be acceptable. It will be totally resisted. The principle of separation of powers should be allowed to drive the process of governance.”
The church leader faulted President Muhammadu Buhari over his insistence that the unity of the country was not negotiable, stressing “when you are marginalizing a certain people, it is not fair and in such situation, the unity of the country is negotiable.”
At the Enugu Government House, the Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Mr. Charles Ndukwe, who received the students, stated that Senator Ekweremadu had maintained his innocence of the allegations.
“Ekweremadu has said it on several occasions that he is innocent of the allegations. We shall continue to support him because he is not just a Senator but a philanthropist”, he said. (Daily Post)
