It was a big show of shame and embarrassment during the last sitting of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly. The embarrassment took place in the presence of the visiting speaker of Cross River State House of Assembly, Hon Odey as part of his legislative tour to compare notes with the Akwa Ibom State speaker, Elder Samuel Ikon.
As at 12noon, there was no light at the chambers to indicate that the house was ready for the Tuesday sitting, but shortly after that members of the house which were 13 in number including the speaker, Elder Samuel Ikon rise from the executive session to convene at the chambers for sitting. Immediately the speaker came in and said the opening prayer and called the house to order, he recognized the presence of the visiting speaker Mr. Larry Odey from Cross River State House of Assembly and acknowledged Mrs. Sarah Elijah who informed the house that a commendation letter should be sent to the state governor Chief Godswill Akpabio as the state celebrates 26 years of statehood.
Shortly after her submission, the microphone system of the house could not function again which threw the entire House of Assembly into a state of silence and confusion. From the look of the visiting speaker of Cross River State House of Assembly, disappointment and embarrassment was radiating from his face including that of the speaker Samuel Ikon who sat helplessly while the supporting staff of the Assembly ran up and down, men and women became electricians as they cut wires and join with another one to see if the microphone will work.
The House remained in the state of silence, confusion and embarrassment for over 30 minutes where nobody could talk even the speaker, in a bid to remedy the situation, the supporting staff ran-out and brought in a public address system with two wireless microphones but that was also faulty as the speaker again was disgraced. The microphone kept fluctuating and could not produce a sound voice for people to hear well.
The visiting speaker watched the situation with great disappointment and was visibly disappointed. Odey however took to making calls to keep himself busy while attempting to forget the ugly situation. The sitting which did not last long was adjourned to Thursday 4th October, 2013 after few members contributed to the information brought before the House by the member representing Nsit Atai which the speaker, Elder Samuel Ikon directed the clerk of the House, Mrs. Namso Umoren to send a letter of commendation to the governor within 24 hours, and also ordered that another letter of invitation should be sent to the governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio to appear before the House and present the state of the State address to the Assembly.
After a long silence in the chamber, immediately light came into microphones. The speaker hurriedly adjourned the sitting without exhausting every item in the order paper for the day for fear of further breakdown of microphone again.
It could be recalled that it is not up to one year the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly purportedly spent millions of naira to install a new state of the art microphone system in the chambers. The speaker of the House Elder Samuel Ikon while presenting his leadership scorecard claimed that the decision of the House to spend millions of naira to install the so called digital microphone system was in line with the digital transformation currently witnessed in the state. Ikon who boasted that the new microphone system is compared to non in the country was disgraced when the new digital microphone system refused to function in the presence of his visitor who came not just to see how they conduct sittings, but also to see the standard of their facilities and compare their own.
Meanwhile a member of the House from Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District who pleaded anonymity told this reporter that it is not true that the House made any changes in the microphone system from the one inherited from the 4th Assembly, adding that it was just a few cabal including the speaker who awarded the contract to themselves claiming that they want to change the microphone system.
He maintained that the House was still using the old microphone systems inspite of the millions that have been spent in the name of installing new communication systems at the chamber. He disclosed that they brought in somebody who only repaired the existing communications system when contract was awarded for installation of new ones.
He said it was as a result of bad leadership at the State House of Assembly that caused the last Tuesday embarrassment to the House and its guest, the speaker of Cross River State House of Assembly.
Efforts to speak with the chairman House Services Committee Mr. Gabriel Toby proved abortive as the member representing Etim Ekpo/Ika State Constituency could not pick his calls and did not respond to the text messages that were sent to his phones. But some staff of the Assembly described Hon. Toby as very incompetent to lead as chairman House Services Committee saying that he does not know his duties.
They said that since the removal of Hon. Aniekan Akpan who was always alive to his duties and responsibilities, the new chairman is a complete disappointment who does not know his left from his right on the workings of the Assembly.
They further said that it is only when the House is ready to go into the chamber that they will hurriedly go and switch on the light which was not the case before.
It was noticed that Hon. Toby could not do anything when the communication system went bad last Tuesday.
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