From Okwe Obi, Abuja

Labour Party governorship candidate in Enugu State, Chijioke Edeoga, has said it would amount to political mischief for anybody to link him with the performance of the state governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

The former Commissioner for Local Government and Environment, said that although he served in the Ugwuanyi’s administration for seven years but operated within the mandate given to his office by the governor.

Edeoga, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, on Sunday, disclosed that many of those who complain about the filthy situation in Enugu metropolis fail to understand that sanitation and waste disposal did not fall within the purview of the Ministry of Environment.

He declared that for the less than four years he served as commissioner, there was no time the governor saddled his ministry with the task of clearing the mountain of refuse in the state capital.

He said: “Each ministry has a mandate written out by the office of the Head of Service telling you in very clear terms what your responsibilities are.

“The responsibility of the Commissioner for Environment in Enugu State has never been about waste evacuation.

“Waste evacuation is the sole preserve of the ESWAMA (Enugu State Waste Management Agency). That is the body responsible officially and by law for waste evacuation in Enugu State.

“As Commissioner for Environment, I never submitted any quotation, I never was expected to supervise waste evacuation and I never did, because it was not my remit.

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“It is the remit of ESWAMA. It is the remit of a special taskforce on environment drawn from the office of governor.

“If anybody said I have anything to do with waste evacuation, the person should publish a single document of approval done to me as Commissioner in my time with regards to waste evacuation. I maintain that it was not my remit, but the work of ESWAMA by law.”

He stressed that if the law had put him in charge of waste evacuation or monies were released in fulfillment of those desires, he would have delivered on that efficiently and superlatively as he did in all other places, where he had worked.

“As Commissioner of Environment, as Council Chairman, as Presidential Adviser, I have done very well.

“And I have received recommendations, everywhere I have served, even as a journalist, I have received recommendations from the best brains in the land.

“Even President Goodluck Jonathan wrote me a letter of commendation for a work well done in four years.

“So, I am a performer, I will not be shy or too humble to say that I performed exceedingly well anywhere I served.

“So, if I was in charge of waste evacuation and monies were released for that to me, I would have done them to be better than it is now,” he declared.