All Progressives Party (PDP), Akwa Ibom State chapter sees the implementation of report on Reigners Church building collapse issued by the state government as a ruse and an attempt to deceive the people based on the provisions of the Commission of Enquiry Law of the state.
On February 21, Charles Udoh, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy issued a press release that the Governor has set in motion necessary a machinery to implement the recommendations of the report.
Udoh said government has mandated the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to commence the process of taking appropriate actions against all persons found culpable in the church building collapse. All cases of proven professional negligence will be dealt with decisively within the ambit of the law.
But in a rejoinder dated February 22, Edet Eyo Bassey, Publicity Secretary of APC, Akwa Ibom State Chapter, noted that Coroner’s Inquest under the Coroner’s Law of Akwa Ibom State would have been preferred to a Commission of Enquiry instituted by the government.
Bassey argued that “The law precludes punitive measures and forbids testimonies and related evidence obtained at sittings in the Commission from being tendered in regular courts to secure civil or criminal convictions.
“In other words, the Commission has no powers for criminal prosecution and punishment. To our mind, the import and purport of the Commission was not to secure conviction and or punishment for persons found culpable.
“When a few years ago the Synagogue Church of All Nations collapsed in Lagos killing and wounding many, Lagos State Government deployed the Coroner’s Law to full measure. Akwa Ibom has a similar law. The Coroner’s law allows the Coroner to investigate, prosecute and secure conviction for culprits. That would have been the way to go if indeed the government of Akwa Ibom state intended for the culprits to be held accountable and commensurately punished.
“Under the Commission of Enquiry law of the state, evidence obtained from and in the course of the sittings of the Commission is inadmissible against anyone in civil or criminal proceedings. Perhaps, that is where Udom found succour to cause the stir and outrage that has trailed the implementation report published by the Commissioner,” he queried.
The publicity secretary described the press statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy as flimsy, saying “It contained neither succour to the bereaved families nor specific course of action to prevent a reoccurrence of such a tragedy.”
Bassey, therefore, called on the bereaved families and relations of the injured and Akwa Ibom people to reject this clever cover-up by the Udom Emmanuel administration, pointing out “This cover-up is clearly a continued pattern of opacity, dishonesty and obfuscation with which Governor Emmanuel has been conducting affairs of the state.”
