Enugu SUBEB Crisis: SERG flays attack on Chime, Nwobodo

                                       Members of the South East Rescue Group, SERG at the press briefing in Enugu Thursday

A pan-Igbo group, the South East Revival Group (SERG), Thursday, rose in defence of Governor Sullivan Chime and his Chief of Staff, Mrs. Ifeoma Nwobodo over an attack by a group which identified itself as Save Enugu Movement.

Save Enugu group had alleged in an advertorial in a national newspaper last Friday that Nwobodo was among other things, involved in shady deals regarding contracts in the state’s Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB). The group also made a veiled reference to Chime in the deal.

National Coordinator of  SERG, Chief Willy Ezugwu told reporters in Enugu that there was no group known as Save Enugu Movement rather the “piece of garbage put in that name is the handiwork of a few Enugu politicians who are opposed to the governorship going to Nsukka senatorial zone as well as those opposed to the decision that those who have served for three tenures in the national assembly should make way for others.”

According to the group: “For the avoidance of doubt, and for the interest of the reading public, the matter that the so-called Save Enugu Movement labored in vain to promote to the status of a current issue has been thoroughly investigated by both the Nigeria police force and EFCC and the verdict of these two institutions are clearly well known to the parties involved.

“The matter under reference is a long settled case at the level of criminal investigation. What is baffling is that rather than avail oneself of the services of the courts and the nation’s judicial system if the matter means such and as constitution provides, someone and several unseen hands are using the pages of newspaper for mock trial.”

It described the issue of SUBEB raised in the publication as a red herring and a decoy by a “few failed politicians from Enugu state to sow the seed of discord among the people and distract the governor and his able team from completing the laudable state round renovation projects they embarked upon since 2007.”

“The governor’s achievements are so sterling and glaring as to blind these failed politicians into thinking clearly and correctly. These failed politicians know who they are not minding their rigorous newspaper propaganda and ever growing list of fictitious names deployed to achieve their nefarious ends,” the group stated.

While maintaining that one million faceless advertisements will not the political direction of Enugu state, the SERG warned the Abuja politicians that “after their grandstanding and throwing of untested weight around, we await them at the home front, and we will defeat and disgrace them at the Enugu homestead.”