Chime’s Aides Flay Critics

Aides to Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu  State have said that the governor was
unperturbed over the sudden spate of attacks he is receiving from opposition
parties in the state under the umbrella of a section of the Conference of
Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP).

Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Inter-Party
Affairs, Evangelist Chris Asadu and the Governor’s Chief Press Secretary,
Chukwudi Achife made this known in separate statements, issued in Enugu and
made available to journalists.

They said this was because those behind it were yet to
disclose any reasonable substance in their criticisms.

Asadu, a former CNPP Chieftain, said the Governor should
neither be worried by the opposition’s threat to form a coalition against the
ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015 nor by the dust it is trying to
raise over plans to build new workers’ secretariat.

He pointed out that only a splinter group of 9 out over 37
opposition parties in the state were behind the attacks and seemed to be
“merely exercising their right to freedom of expression in order to seek
relevance rather than pursuing any discernible cause”.

He wondered why anyone should kick against a new secretariat
when there was no whimper, when the same governor announced his plan to build a
workers’ estate and also lifted the embargo on employment that had been in
place for years before he came into office.

Achife on his part, pointed out that the credibility of the
group’s criticism was further undermined by the claims it had made in the media
saying that it decided to launch the attacks on the governor, because he
(Chime) had allegedly become “inaccessible” to its members in the state after they
had supposedly helped him to victory in the 2011 elections.

He noted that not only had the governor set up an all
inclusive government with some opposition figures occupying positions but that
he had also maintained a broad-minded and non-partisan policy in the
implementation of his transformational agenda in the state.

His words: “We understand these attacks as a mere exercise
of freedom of expression and not that there is any real substance in them.
These things happen now and then, democracy permits it and as such the governor
is not perturbed about it. All I can say is that he is focused and will remain
focused on the job he has been elected to do and which an objective minds have
acknowledged. He has been doing excellently well”, he further stressed.

Achife, however, restated the governor’s willingness to
listen to constructive criticisms and suggestions as to how best to move the
state forward, adding that many important policies of the government had been
based on inputs from “patriotic citizens”.