By Baron Ike
Former governor of Enugu State, Sullivan Chime has given deeper insight into why operatives of the anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were after him.
Chime said they wanted to know how he spent the N450 million given to him for his state for the 2015 general election which his former party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) eventually lost.
The one time PDP chieftain who spent eight years in office and recently defected to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) said his movement to APC had nothing to do with his matter with the EFCC as was being speculated in some quarters as move to curry the favour of the powers that be in government now.
During an interview with the African Independent Television (AIT) monitored on Tuesday, May 23 Chime said he left PDP primarily because he thinks “the party is dead.”
His words: “I left PDP because the party has died; it is dead and has collapsed. PDP is dead and I want to stop there.”
Giving further insight why he thinks the party cannot be salvaged, Chime traced what he described as the origin of the crisis haunting the PDP today, saying it all started when former President Goodluck Jonathan ignored most of his promises including not to seek another term after completing his four year tenure and instead resorted plotting to sidetrack the governors and members of the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC) in preference to members of the National Assembly with whom he thought were easier to manipulate.
“We had issues with Jonathan when he called governors to a meeting in 2010. There were several issues. In the process Bamaga Tukur resigned and Ali Muazu was brought in to complete Tukur’s tenure. But even at that the seed of discord was sowed to the extent that members of the National Working Committee (NWC) grew wings while the party NEC was not sitting. We all saw how we lost the election.
“Today the PDP is still in court at all levels. The constitution of the party was changed in ways that questions were asked and nobody was prepared to provide convincing answers. I do not think circumstances of this nature will make for the survival of the party any more,” he argued.
Chime said he has nothing to fear being investigated by the EFCC because he is not a thief. “If after two years of leaving office I am still here in Enugu where am I going to? I got money from the national organ of the PDP for Enugu to prosecute the 2015 election and the money was utilised for such. And EFCC was interested in how the money was used. And don’t forget that Enugu delivered 100 percent on the election, meaning the people did what they got money for.”
Chime said he did his best for Enugu State, noting that the people are in better position to judge his performance.
He also confirmed that he was diagnosed with cancer while in office, but that he was not as sick as he was portrayed before he went for the treatment. “I think it was after the Chemo and you know Chemo will always downgrade you no matter how you look initially that the issue of me not being capable of governing Enugu came up. But I took my time to do what is constitutionally necessary for a governor who was going for medical vacation. And when I was leaving I told the the President what the issues with me were,” he explained.