Photos: Governor Sullivan Now Fighting With His Deputy?

About 3,500 chickens and about 40 crates of eggs were on Monday carted away from the poultry farm of the Enugu State Deputy Governor, Mr. Sunday Onyebuchi, as officials of the state Capital Territory Development Authority (ECTDA) and Ministry of Environment invaded his official lodge, allegedly on the “orders from above.” According to reports, the carting away of the chickens and eggs is preparatory for the eventual destruction of the farm.

The ECTDA and Environment Ministry officials who were led by their commissioners, Messrs Ikechukwu Ugwuegede and Nnaemeka Chukwuone respectively, arrived the lodge at

about 1pm on Monday to inform the Deputy Governor of an order to evacuate the birds and demolish the poultry which the government claimed was constituting public health hazard.

Onyebuchi, who was with his wife and personal aides, including his security officers attached to his office at the lodge, which had been under renovation since September 2012, did not resist the action of the officials, who later brought in four trucks and evacuated the chickens to an unknown destination.When the government officials mobilised by the two commissioners could not evacuate the entire birds, Ugwuegede was said to have mobilised more uniformed officials of his ministry, who spent about an hour evacuating the birds and the crates of eggs into the four trucks and took them away.

Shocked by the evacuation, the Enugu State Deputy Governor Sunday Onyebuchi described it as a wicked act of impunity against him. That the action was shocking, was intended to humiliate him, and that those behind the act were hiding their motive.

According to him, while speaking with newsmen yesterday:

They mentioned the environmental or health hazard emanating from my poultry farm. In their statement, they claimed they had asked me to clean up the place and I refused. Let them produce a letter asking me to do that. It is not true. 

The poultry farm was a designated Agriculture Unit, the structure had been used as a poultry farm before I became deputy governor.  I have operated the poultry farm since 2008. That was why I put in my Assets Declaration at the end of my first term and at the beginning of this term that I have operated the poultry farm and this was verified by the Code of Conduct Bureau. How suddenly did my poultry farm become a health hazard when it has been in existence since 2008? Let them deny that there is no bigger poultry farm, piggery and cattle ranch in the Governor’s Lodge!

My poultry farm was properly run and cleaned because it was run with the technical support from the state Ministry of Agriculture. If they succeed in deceiving the public, they can never deceive God. As I am talking to you, the over 3,000 chickens confiscated yesterday and their whereabouts are unknown. They also removed bags of feeds and feeders and other materials.

Asked of his next action, the deputy governor said:

“For now, I am presenting the matter to God, because the person behind it is powerful and my challenging him will be like using a vehicle to collide with a moving train.”

The ECTDA Commissioner, however, declined to comment on the development when approached by newsmen who rushed to the scene from the nearby Press Unit of the Government House, saying he did not invite any journalist to witness the exercise.