Exclusive! How Unoma Akpabio forced Akwa Ibom Speaker to ‘sack’ four legislators

Unoma Akpabio: endangering democracy in Akwa Ibom State

By Nse Peter

The wife of Akwa Ibom governor, Mrs. Unoma Akpabio may have been the unseen hand behind the controversial sacking of four members of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly recently, Think Akwa Ibom! can authoritatively revealed.

While declaring the seats of the lawmakers vacant, the Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Sam Ikon said the affected members breached provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and therefore forfeited their seats in the House of Assembly when they defected from Peoples Democratic Party, the platform that got them elected into the house, to another party.  

But Think Akwa Ibom! gathered from one of the Speaker’s aides that the punitive action of sacking the legislators was specifically targeted at Mrs. Alice Ekpenyong, member representing Mbo State Constituency, who is said to have rejected several pleas from the governor’s wife that she should at least assist in mobilising Oro women for the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Mr. Udom Emmanuel even if she could no longer return to the party.

Alice Ekpenyong, until recent development, was the Chief Whip of the House of Assembly.

Other affected members are Mr. Kufreabasi Etuk (Uruan State Constituency), Mr. Bassey Etienam (Urue Offong Uruko State Constituency) and Mr. Paul Owoh (Ini State Constituency).

Apart from Paul Owoh who defected to Accord Party to contest for Ikono/Ini Federal Constituency, Ekpenyong, Etienam, and Etuk defected to All Progressives Congress. Etienam is seeking to become a senator (Eket Senatorial District) under APC.

Mrs. Ekpenyong was said to have stirred the wrath of Mrs. Unoma Akpabio when she allegedly refused to grant audience two weeks ago to the governor’s wife who was on a campaign tour to Mbo Local Government Area to solicit support for Mr. Udom Emmanuel.

 “(The) two times the governor’s wife went to Mbo, Alice Ekpenyong bluntly told her that she wasn’t ready to see her,” the speaker’s aide told Think Akwa Ibom! “She (Unoma Akpabio) took Alice Ekpenyong’s action as an unbearable insult and decided to hit hard on her by getting her removed from the House.

“Most times people who don’t understand the power play in politics would just want to blame the speaker for anything that happen in the House. But what everyone seems to forget is that Elder Sam Ikon was given that position (speakership) by the governor. It wasn’t the members who made him speaker.”

The speaker, Think Akwa Ibom! learned, was reluctant at first to unilaterally act on the First Lady’s instruction that Mrs. Alice Ekpenyong be immediately prevented from attending sittings in the State House of Assembly; he needed a way out that could make the public see him as merely carrying out directive from some higher constitutional authority, hence the PDP State Chairman, Mr. Paul Ekpo was introduced in to fill the blank.

When the trio of Unoma Akpabio, Sam Ikon and Paul Ekpo met at Government House over the issue last week, there was unanimous agreement that instead of punishing Alice Ekpenyong alone which could raise suspicion and uproar among the public, other legislators who defected from PDP should be forced to vacate their seats too.

Mrs. Sarah Elijah (Nsit Atai State Constituency) who defected from PDP to Accord Party to seek for a return to the House is said to have been spared the punitive sanction because of the fear that her husband, Mr. Sunny Elijah who enjoy great following in Nsit Atai could turn the table completely against PDP in the area. The reasoning of PDP is that Uruan, Ini and the entire Oron Federal Constituency have already been taken by APC, so Nsit Atai should be kept away from the opposition.

Think Akwa Ibom! learned that Unoma Akpabio has instructed Udom Emmanuel to quickly hold fresh political meetings between Thursday and Friday this week with Oro leaders and youths to ward off more harmful effect over the latest development in the House of Assembly.

Meanwhile, Kufre Etuk has alleged that Governor Godswill Akpabio moved against him and his other three colleagues in the House so as to pave way for him (Akpabio) to buy over the state-owned Ibom Independent Power Plant at Ikot Abasi through a phony privatization programme.

Mr. Etuk who addressed journalists on Wednesday in his Ewet Housing residence, Uyo, said Governor Akpabio had briefed the House of his intension to privatise the power plant and that he was aware of the opposition by some of the House members, including himself, to such plans.

Expectedly, the sacking of the four House of Assembly members has attracted criticisms against PDP in Akwa Ibom State.

“I am beginning to doubt the capacity of PDP. Barely few days to the much awaited elections, a political party that claims to be the largest in Africa, is yet in deep blunders,” said Darlington Udobong, a journalist in Uyo. “It's unimaginable that at a time when people and institutions are mending fences and toeing the path of reconciliation, the Akwa Ibom State Chapter of PDP could wake up and act in a nonsensical manner that befits a child.

“Couldn't we learn from Ebonyi State? Couldn't we learn from Sokoto, Taraba, Nassarawa States or even the Federal House of Reps? The Judiciary is fighting for a more credible course, autonomy. The Legislature, the symbol of democracy, is still wandering in the dark. If Speaker Sam Ikon, who is an amiable and intelligent gentleman, is acting the script of the Executive, then the days of impeachment are nearer than we know,” said Udobong.

A U.S-based indigene of Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Moses Edem described Sam Ikon as being a ‘wayward and toothless speaker’ and wondered why the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly should allow the Executive to dictate their direction for them.