Ebun Francis|
Five lawmakers in Akwa Ibom house of assembly whose seat were declared vacant by the speaker of the house following their defection from PDP to APC on Monday said they have sacked Hon Onofiok Duke as speaker of the house.
The five lawmakers who elected Nse Ntuen, member representing Essien Udim constituency, as the new speaker, cited the case of Senate president, Bukola Saraki to make the case that a minority can be speaker.
Addressing newsmen in Uyo, the state capital shortly after his election, the new speaker said the former speaker was changed because lawmakers have lost confidence in him.
Ntuen questioned why Luke would unilaterally declare their seats vacant when a member who defected to the PDP from APC in 2017 is still in the house.
He said, “In the first place no such action as declaring our seat vacant took place because there was no mace.”
“The former speaker did not follow due legislative procedure of being announced into the chamber by the Sergeant at Arms; rather he came in through the back door.
“What happened in the house today was a normal legislative thing. We were supposed to sit on Tuesday.
“But yesterday (Sunday) we got notices that the sitting had been rescheduled for today because of the public holiday on Tuesday and nobody objected to that.
“Unfortunately this morning when I came to the house, the gate was barricaded and we were not allowed to go into the premises.
“Moreover, the purported action was not in the order paper for today’s plenary.
“So in the light of these anomalies, members sat and elected me as the new speaker. We will reconvene on Wednesday when other positions will be filled.
“This will not be the first time a minority member will be elected head of a legislature. The Senate President of the Nigerian Senate is a minority member.”
“So we elected a new speaker because Luke is not good enough to be speaker. He is incompetent and being teleguided by the executive against our quest to be independent.”