The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State has condemned the “former speaker” in “acting as a god by declaring the seats of members whose matters were still pending in the courts vacant and who had existing court orders restraining him from such purported declarations.”
The five lawmakers are Idongesit Ituen, Itu State Constituency; Nse Ntuen, Essien Udim; Otobong Ndem, Mkpat Enin; Gabriel Toby, Etim Ekpo/Ika; and Victor Udofia, Ikono.
The chairman of APC in the state, Ini Okopido, who stated this on Wednesday while briefing journalists on the crisis rocking the house of assembly, condemned the action of the speaker in its entirety in taking the laws into his hands and embarking on absolute illegalities.
Mr. Onofiok Luke, the house speaker, purportedly sacked by the five legislators, had on Monday declared their seats vacant, citing section 109 sub-section 1g of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as the thrust of his action.
In a jiffy, the five lawmakers sacked by the speaker for defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC had their “sitting” on Monday met in the office of Nse Ntuen where they, in turn, declared Mr. Luke removed as speaker.
The five went ahead to “elect” Mr Ntuen as the “new speaker” of the assembly.
Okopido said the APC will no longer recognise Onofiok Luke as the Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.
“We stand by the decision of the lawmakers to elect a new speaker to lead the 6th Assembly and will support the new speaker, Hon. Nse Ntuen as is required of the All Progressives Congress in Akwa Ibom State,” the APC chairman, said.
He said the five lawmakers had subsisting court cases against “the former speaker” before their seats were declared vacant.
“You will all recall that the first person to decamp in the current Assembly was the member representing Urue Offong/Oruko State Constituency, Hon. Asuquo Archibong, who won election to the State House on the platform of the APC,” Mr Okopido said.
“The speaker did not declare his seat vacant at the time he decamped from his party for no just cause.
“Even when Mr Speaker purported to do a blanket declaration of all members that decamped from parties that sponsored their elections, he carefully avoided touching the seat of the Urue Offong/Oruko State Constituency member simply because he decamped to his party, the PDP. Hon. Archibong is the candidate of the PDP in the 2019 general elections for the Urue Offong/Oruko State Constituency.
“His disobedience to extant orders of the Court is most contemptuous and despicable of a Chief Law Maker who had sworn to respect and protect the laws of the land. Now he is the one breaking them.
“The APC in Akwa Ibom state cannot accept the impunity and political rascality displayed by the former speaker in declaring the seats of our members in the Assembly vacant, for no just cause,” he said.
In another development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Monday, condemned the attempts by hoodlums to disrupt the sitting of members of the Akwa-Ibom state House of Assembly.
In a statement in Abuja, Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, also condemned the role allegedly played by the police in the state, in the invasion of the House of Assembly complex by the hoodlums, which led to a breakdown of order in the state legislature.
“The armed thugs, who accompanied a former member of the House of Assembly, Idongesit Ituen, attempted to disrupt proceedings in a bid to stop the House from reading an order of a Federal High Court, which had last week declared his seat vacant following his decampment from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“The court had in a declarative judgment ordered the House of Assembly not to recognise Hon Ituen as a member of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.
“Strangely, last week, the new Police commissioner posted to the state, Mr J.B Abang, without any reasons, reportedly ordered the immediate withdrawal of police officers attached to house members an action, which paved the way for the hoodlums to invade the complex and attempted to disrupt proceedings
” Curiously, the hoodlums who attempted to break into the chambers had the backing of policemen, while the members were unprotected, a development which pointed to a high-level official conspiracy against the state legislature
“Though the House of Assembly stood in defence of the law and declared Ituen’s seat as well as those of four others who had decamped from the PDP vacant, in line with the judgment of the court, the PDP completely condemns the action of the police in aiding an invasion of a legislative house,” PDP stated.
While stating that its lawmakers would not be deterred by any form of intimidation and resort to violence by the All Progressives Congress (APC) and compromised security officials, particularly the police, the party urged Nigerians to hold the police and the APC responsible should any harm come upon the leadership or any member of the state assembly.
