The honourable members of the Cross River State House of Assembly on Friday, deserted the Chamber, claiming that the report on the screening of acting Chief Judge, Justice Akon Ikpeme was not ready.<\/p>\n
The leadership of the House had ordered the reconvening of the House with a view to receiving the report on the confirmation of the Chief Judge of the State from the committee on Judiciary.<\/p>\n
Judiciary committee members had screened the acting Chief Judge of the State, Justice Akon Ikpeme on Thursday and the report was to be presented to the House on Friday for confirmation. But members deserted the House and the Committee members on Judiciary were equally nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n
DAILY POST observed that two or three members who were in the Chamber of the Assembly as at 9.30am left while others were holding clandestine meeting at unknown destination. As at 12.30pm the House was not reconvened while senior and junior lawyers as well as guests left unannounced.<\/p>\n
Addressing the media thereafter, the Chairman, House Committee on Information, Hon Francis Bassey Asukwo, who represents Odukpani state constituency, said that the House cannot meet today (Friday) because the report was not ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe House Committee on Judiciary report is not ready yet so the House cannot sit, we are conscious of the fact that we have time limitation, so on or before Monday the House will be reconvene to take on this matter and give it a final conclusion<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Chairman of Committee on Judiciary has said that the report was not ready, so we cannot meet today, we will reconvene on or before Monday, we are still within time,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
Reacting, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Ntufam Mba Ukwni regretted the action of the Honourable members and said what the House did was not only bad for them, the governor but to the entire state.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are hearing is that the Governor carried money to go and bribe the House members to vote against their own report. So I am sure that members of the House of Assembly who are themselves are representative of the people are getting the feelings of their people.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat may be the main reason why the sitting might have been postponed. It is the infiltration of the people from the executive into the legislature to push them to do what is not correct that might have been the reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis action has created a bad situation in Cross River State, it doesn\u2019t favour the Governor, who wants wrong things to be done, it does not favour the State and doesn\u2019t favour the House of Assembly members because we know the provisions of the constitution with regards to the appointment to the Chief Judge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe National Judicial Commission had already made their recommendation and I don\u2019t see them, constituted by very very distinguish members going to make a different recommendation from what they have done so it is to create a problem for the state in the National Judicial Council which will be very very terrible thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it will be very unfortunate thing that people who represent our state and somebody elected as Governor of a state could do things maliciously against his state,\u201d Ntufam Ukweni lamented.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The honourable members of the Cross River State House of Assembly on Friday, deserted the Chamber, claiming that the report on the screening of acting Chief Judge, Justice Akon Ikpeme was not ready. The leadership of the House had ordered the reconvening of the House with a view to receiving the report on the confirmation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":22017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[649,821],"class_list":["post-22016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-cross-river","tag-house-of-assembly"],"yoast_head":"\n