AKHA crisis escalates As Anti Ikon Members shun siting

                 Rt. Hon. Sam Ikon                Obong Paul Ekpo, can he tame the rising tide against Ikon?

                                                               Hon. Bassey Etienam leading lawmakers against Ikon?

 * Speaker conduct plenary with 8 members’ holds secret talk with PDP

What started as a crisis of confidence in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has taken a different dimension as members refused to attend house plenary leaving the speaker, Elder Samuel Ikon helpless and embarrassed last Tuesday before visiting Ugandans.

Although the speaker has always denied that there is no crises in the State House of Assembly, it became apparently clear last Tuesday when almost all the members of the House exception of Onofiok Luke and Ekaette Ebong Okon who were out of the state were all present at the executive session which lasted for some hours, but after the executive session most members instead of moving to the chambers for plenary, headed to their offices and from there move to their individual cars and went home without attending the sitting for the day. 

To serve his face from the imminent embarrassment due to the visiting legislators who came from Uganda to visit the state Assembly, the speaker, Sam Ikon was compelled to conduct last Tuesday sitting with just 7 members including himself to make  it 8.

Though the house did not take any major decision, some members of the house who are anti-Sam Ikon spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being labelled as rebel said that the action of the speaker in conducting sitting with 8 members was an impeachable offence. He maintained that such action constitute an abuse of office by the speaker which is not supposed to be so, adding that the standing order of the clearly spells out that before the house can sit, members must be up to one third, in the case of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly which has 26 members it should have been 9 members to form a quorum before sitting can take place.

The lawmaker further said that they decided not to attend the sitting so that the speaker will know that he cannot function without the support of members since he is in the habit of doing eye service and sycophantic leadership.

This reporter gathered that in spite all the pleadings by the speaker at the executive session, most of the aggrieved members remained adamant and refuses to go into the chambers.

Further investigations on the actions of the lawmakers who unanimously boycotted the sitting last Tuesday revealed that Bassey Etienam, member representing Urueffong Oruko State Constituency was the harrow head and leader of the anti Ikon lawmakers.

A source at the Assembly complex disclosed that Etienam and others are not comfortable with the leadership of Sam  Ikon  especially the way he is carrying himself because of his desperate moves to get the Etinan Federal Constituency seat by all means.

After the sitting, Ikon went into a closed-door meeting with the state leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP which was presided by the State chairman Obong Paul Ekpo at the state party secretariat. The meeting which was held behind a closed-door session lasted up to about 40 minutes.

Details of the close-door  meeting with the state party officials was not made known, but a party source disclosed that top on the agenda during  the close-door meeting was the development that took place that Tuesday where most of the House members boycotted sitting which resulted in  8 members attending the sitting without forming a quorum.

He said that Ikon complained bitterly that most of the house members are against him, but he maintained that Ikon did not mention any particular thing that makes them turn against him.

Another issue discussed at the meeting was the issue of automatic ticket to politicians seeking re-elections in the House of Representatives.

He lamented that it was wrong for anybody or a responsible party like the PDP to consider giving automatic tickets to anybody and described any attempt to allow automatic ticket as undemocratic.

The state chairman of PDP, Obong Paul Ekpo is said to have assured the speaker that there will be no automatic ticket for any politician contesting the 2015 election, adding that anybody seeking any elective position should go to his or her ward and constituency and test his or her popularity.

Paul Ekpo is said to have assured Ikon that he will dialogue with members of the House and expressed optimism that as soon as possible, the crises of confidence in the House will be resolved.

Meanwhile, considering the refusal of members to attend the sitting last week, the speaker, Elder Samuel Ikon accordingly adjourned plenary for one week to allow time for relevant stakeholders to intervene in the House Crisis and resolve the problem so that the House can consider the 2014 appropriation bill today.