I didn’t plot to impeach Jonathan - Chukwumerije

SENATOR Uche Chukwumerijie has denied the existence of any plot led by him to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan over the non-implementation of the recommendations of the Senate Committee on Privatisation.

The Abia State senator was forced to issue a rebuttal in Abuja on Sunday following reports which emerged in the media linking him to a move to impeach the president.

He said in a statement personally signed by him and made available to the Nigerian Tribune that "the press reports that I was leading a move to impeach President Jonathan are untrue and a gross misrepresentation of aspects of my brief speech in the Senate last Thursday."

Explaining what took place on the floor of the Senate that was misconstrued, he said: “My speech referred to mobilisation of colleagues to co-sponsor a motion urging early implementation of the recommendations of the Senate Committee on Privatisation.

“This is a routine Senate procedure for a motion that should carry the full weight of the chambers. The delay in implementing the Ahmed Lawan Privatisation Report, which exposed in clinical details, the massive siphoning of public funds to private hands, demands such a robust remedial action. This move is certainly not a mobilisation for impeachment.

“The mention of impeachment at the tail end of the speech is a reminder of the ultimate weapon of Parliament sign-posting, like a sword of Damocles, the distant reaches of elastic public goodwill. It is definitely not a move, immediate or long-term, against Jonathan’s regime,” he said.