APC describes C’River’s Assembly as rubber stamp, and dishonourable

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Cross River State has described the State House of Assembly (CRSHA) as rubber stamp House that is made up of dishonourable members, noting that the House will say one thing and do a different one.

In a statement by the APC Publicity Secretary, Mr Mens Ikpeme and made available to our correspondent, the APC said that the House had told the people that there was no meeting held to declare Hon (Dr.) Ekom Elucate’s seat vacant.

Hon Elucate the member representing Obubra II state constituency in the Assembly had defected from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC, recently and the House had declared his seat in the House vacant.

“The Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly, Right Hon. John Gaul Lebo, told Cross Riverians and the whole world on the 7th of July, 2017 that, there was no meeting with the governor in respect of hatching a plan to declare the seat of Hon (Dr.) Ekom Elucate, who recently decamped to the All Progressives Congress (APC) vacant.

“Few days later, this same dishonourable honourable and his co-travellers declared the seat of Hon. Ekom vacant despite very clear constitutional provisions on the above matter. Cross River State Assembly legislators are insensitive to their constitutional positions and they intentionally break the laws for political gain.

“This has exposed the level of immaturity and poor understanding of constitutional provisions on the part of the Assembly members. The portion of the Nigeria constitution quoted; section 109, subsection 1G as a lay man’s excuse of the 1999 constitution as amended by declaring the seat of Honourable (Dr.) Elucate Ekom Vacant.”

He said that the portion of the 1999 constitution has A and B and the State Assembly is supposed to conform to that. They rather tied a noose around their neck by citing sub-section 1G which reads.

“Being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.

“Goats, fowls, the blind, deaf and dumb know that PDP is in serious crisis in the state and national. The Makarfi group and Sheriff group. Their fundamental political process occurs in all level of their hierarchy each with its own diverse split up system with less strength and bond linking to their national hierarchy.

“Therefore, what the PDP House of Assembly has just done is a clear violation of the law and impunity which tore PDP apart and made them loose relevance. What the PDP House of Assembly has done cannot stand their purported 108 days for bye election to replace Hon.(Dr.) Elucate Ekom is a fallacy.”

According to the state, the Publicity Secretary it was a clear evidence that the Cross River State Assembly always played to the gallery to prove to the innocent masses that they are working, but always fail to complete the mandated period for legislative sitting.

It is common knowledge that there is conflicts of interest in Cross River Assembly as they have been promised second term which has hindered effective functionality of the state legislators for them to uphold basic democratic governance.

Edem Edem, Calabar