The governor’s action was to forestall impeachment notice on him from the largely APC members of the Ntuen faction, who had earlier in the sitting suspended 11 PDP members.
Joe Effiong, Uyo and Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom State has accused Governor Udom Emmanuel of disrupting the sitting of the state House of Assembly.
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The party alleged that the governor, yesterday, led a team of security officers and youths, suspected to be People’s Democratic Party (PDP) thugs, to the House of Assembly to dislodge a faction, led by the member representing Essien Udim State Constituency in the House, Nse Ntuen, who had earlier taken over the house, and prevented them from sitting.
Emmanuel, who was said to have arrived the Assembly a few minutes past 10:00am, amidst alleged sporadic gunfire by the security personnel who accompanied him, allegedly headed straight to the chambers of the assembly.
The gun-firing officers were alleged to have manhandled members of the Nse Ntuen faction, with several of them severely wounded.
The governor’s action, Daily Sun learnt, was to forestall a possible impeachment notice on him from the largely APC members of the Ntuen faction, who had earlier in the sitting, before the arrival of the governor, suspended 11 PDP members.
Daily Sun further gathered that the governor, accompanied by members of his executive council ensured the Onofiok Luke’s faction, made up of the remaining PDP members, sat in plenary. He allegedly later had a private audience with the embattled Speaker, Onofiok Luke.
The Ntuen faction had, in its sitting, dissolved all the standing committees, having suspended 11 members.
The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly was thrown into crisis of Monday, November 19, 2018, when Luke declared the seats of six members of the House elected on the platform of the PDP, who had defected to the APC vacant.
Meanwhile, the House, yesterday, passed a vote of confidence in Luke for his leadership qualities and “for standing by the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the standing orders of the House.”
The house in its six-point resolutions has also asked the Commissioner of Police and other security agencies to protect the institution and its members, and warned them to desist from aiding and abating the criminal activities of the lawmakers who have been sacked.
The lawmakers also resolved to stand strong with Governor Emmanuel and his government towards building a peaceful and stronger Akwa Ibom State.
Also, the PDP, yesterday, condemned the alleged invasion of the Akwa-Ibom Assembly by security agents.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP accused the former governor of the state, Senator Godswill Akpabio, of stirring violence Assembly, in fulfillment of his threats that the APC will overrun Akwa Ibom, same way Adolf Hitler overran Poland, during the second World War.