BY UGOCHUKWU EKE
The Deputy Governor of Imo State, Eze Madumere, has denied ever being imprisoned for theft, civil or any criminal offence in the United States of America .
The state House of Assembly had on Tuesday commenced impeachment process against him during plenary, during which he was accused of being an ex-convict, among other allegations.
The impeachment petition , which was signed by 14 lawmakers, was moved by the deputy speaker, Ugonna Ozuruigbo.
However Madumere in a statement issued shortly afterwards by his chief press secretary , Uche Onwuchekwa , said that he was not guilty of any of the allegations.
The statement said that the deputy governor had not been convicted anywhere in the world of any civil matter, not to mention a criminal one.
Madumere said that the two times he had been clamped into detention were mainly to save Governor Rochas Okorocha from embarrassment.
He attributed the impeachment move by the house of assembly as, “Giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it”.
The statement reads in part, “By our records, the Deputy Governor of Imo State, Prince Eze Madumere, has never abdicated any of his responsibilities”.
“There are laid down procedures through which a Deputy Governor or any member of the executive Council can be invited for Executive Council Meeting”.
“We hereby state that the Deputy Governor has never been invited for such meetings, either through a memo or via any official notices and thereby cannot stand against the deputy governor within the period in review”.
“Refusal to attend and to hold meetings with the governor is, to say the least, another exercise in triviality as the deputy governor cannot force himself on the governor, especially when he has been tagged a pariah in the government circles”.
“To this extent, where the Deputy Governor ’s inputs are needed, there are right procedures through which he could be reached”.
“The most embarrassing among the spurious allegations is the annoying allegation of concealment of felonious conduct affecting the presentation of self as eligible candidate of office of Deputy Governor of Imo State’.
“The Deputy Governor of Imo State, Prince Eze Madumere, has never been convicted of any civil matter, let alone, theft”.
“We are pained to state that the two occasions that the Deputy Governor had to go through the pains of losing his freedom in detention were all in the course of saving Owelle Rochas Okorocha from public disgrace”.
“It will be recalled that Prince Madumere, shortly after Achike Udenwa’s victory at the polls in 1999, had to face contempt of Court for failure to make it to the court”.
“He was in detention in the United States for about one month all because he was delayed by Governor Okorocha, to the glory of God, Prince Madumere was acquitted of any wrongdoing”.
“The second time he had to stoop low so that Governor Okorocha might be spared the humiliation of getting incarcerated, Prince Madumere again yielded and was detained for almost two months on phony charges, which he was also absolved of”.
