ANXIETY is mounting over the whereabouts of Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime.
Unless the state's government makes a categorical statement on the bearing of the governor, a pro-democracy organisation, Save Enugu Group [SEG], Saturday, threatened to occupy Enugu State Government House next week.
Chime has been absent from office since September 19, 2012.
Officials of his administration say the governor is observing his "accumulated leave" and have not disclosed when the holiday would end.
Disturbed by the development, SEG, consisting leaders from the state's three senatorial zones, last week, wrote to Acting Governor, Sunday Onyebuchi, demanding, within two weeks, a statement on Chime's whereabouts; and also that the administration empowers eminent indigenes to visit the governor wherever he might be.
To underscore the seriousness of its demand, the group, at the weekend, sent a letter to the Chairman of the Southeast Governors' Forum, Mr. Peter Obi, intimating him of its plans and insisting that it shall pursue to a logical end the struggle to uncover the mystery surrounding Chime's absence.
The Guardian learnt that officials of the Save Enugu Group have already started sensitising residents across the senatorial zones on why they should support move to unearth Chime's whereabouts.
Coordinator of the group and National Chairman of the Citizens Popular Party [CPP], Chief Maxi Okwu, said: "As far as we are concerned, officials of the Enugu government have only told us that Chime is on an accumulated leave. It is an act of irresponsibility for any chief executive to embark on an accumulated leave for as long as four months."
He said: "Anybody talking about peace or that Chime is doing well does not understand democracy, and probably is suffering from a hangover. What we demand is that Enugu government say the truth about the governor. If he is sick, we demand to know; and why he has abandoned work for four months.
"We have given the Acting Governor two weeks. We are not going back on this. They should wait until next week when the ultimatum expires."
Another member of the group and Executive Director of the Civil Liberties Organisation [CLO], Ibuchukwu Ezike, said: "Government officials say we are attention seekers. I want to tell you that CLO has the capacity to mobilise Enugu people to occupy Enugu Government House or anywhere in the state. We are a law-abiding group. What we demand is the status of Chime."
Ezike said: "Those who say we should be dismissed should learn from what happened to former Governor Chimaroke Nnamani; we marched round the streets of Enugu and carried coffins to show how bad the administration was. We were on the verge of bringing him down when he changed his anti-people policy. What we are saying is not something we cannot do. We have informed those who should know. And that is that."
The state government had through a statement from the Chief Press Secretary, Chukwudi Achife, last week, dismissed the group as 'attention seekers'.
State chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Vita Abba, enjoined the group not to use the absence of the governor to derail peace in the state, even as he gave assurance that Chime would return soon.
