‘Policemen Helped Former Members into the House to Carry Out the Comedy We Witnessed’

The Deputy House Leader of the A kw a I bo ms tate House of Assembly, chairman on information and member representing Ib io no Ib om state constituency, Rt. Hon. I me Okon, says the police over reached its powers in closing the assembly complex

What do you make of the invasion of the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly, and the senate’s intervention during the invasion?

We thank the senate for behaving as true democrats, guarding democracy, which was hard earned. We know that the legislature is the symbol of democracy which has to be protected. So we thank them for the resolution they took to guard the legislature in Akwa Ibom state.

We were surprised however that the police could come to seal the assembly premises without recourse to even the speaker. None of us knew why they came. For the two days they were there they didn’t tell us anything. We thank God they’ve now left, and, we believe it’s in compliance with the resolution of the senate.

Critics of the invasion say the police overreached its powers. Others say it fell within their duty to maintain peace. what’s your opinion?

In terms of crisis, yes, the police can come in to maintain the peace, but, in this case there was no crisis that had to bring in the police to the house of assembly premises. Because, the event that happened on Monday November 19 was a normal one, such that we are even worried that some members of the police aided our former members to come into the house to carry out the comedy that we saw which they claim was a sitting of three members. It is that complicity that bothers us. Because, as to what happened, I think it was a normal event in the house.

If the police came because they wanted to forestall further crisis, then they should have had recourse to the speaker of the house. In any case, most times it should have even been at the invitation of the leadership of the house, but it wasn’t the speaker that invited them, they came on their own. And since they came on their own, then they ought to have discussed with the speaker. Assuming the members had any issues, that did not affect the members of staff of the assembly; but everybody, including the staff were barred from going inside the premises.

So to a certain extent they overreached their powers. But, they have the intrinsic power to take any action to forestall crisis. But in this case there was no crisis in the house in the magnitude that brought them to seal up the assembly premises without recourse to the leadership of the house.

What do you make of the allegation that the APC wants to instigate crisis in the state to gain an upper hand in next year’s elections?

I would have thought that the invasion was a normal police arrangement but the reaction of the APC both at the national and state level have shown that there’s credit to this allegation. I read that the national chairman of the APC was supporting what his members who had been ousted from the house by the operation of the law, and telling stories as if he were in the premises when the thing happened.

Again I was also surprised that the state chairman of the APC was even congratulating the three members who sat on that day to purportedly bring out an imposter claiming to be the speaker.

I believe that we are all democrats and beyond party lines we should take steps and be serious in guarding this democracy that was hard earned. So, they should not support that sort of illegality where you have a situation that three members would go in without a sergeant at arms or clerk and force themselves into the hallowed chambers of the house.

How true is the allegation that in the coming days more lawmakers will defect to the All Progressives Congress in the state?

As far I’m concerned, I know that the 21 of us who are members of the PDP and are currently members of the house of assembly are intact. There is no indication that any of us is leaving. I would be surprised at the situation that someone would now leave a winning team and majority to join the minority who are not even members of the house as we talk. So it is not true.

What do you make of the allegation that Senator Godswill Akpabio, hoping to deliver the state to the APC, is poaching PDP members?

Akwa Ibom is a PDP state, predominantly, and there is no fear of the APC taking over the state. In a situation like this, there may be overtures made by certain persons to some members to come over. I won’t be surprised at that, but at the moment, nobody out of the 21 members have indicated interest to join the APC.

In retrospect do you think the expulsion of the members was the right thing to do, and is there precedence for the house action?

What happened was an operation of the law. The 1999 Constitution of Nigeria, Section 109 gives us the reasons where someone could lose his membership. The part that talks of defection says that if you do, it means you’ve lost your membership, except in a situation where there’s a division in your party or there is a merger. And in this case you know there has been no merger or faction in the PDP. Whatever problems we had has since been sorted out. That same constitution even goes further to say that the speaker has a duty to enforce that section of the constitution.

But in this case it was even a situation where a member who had defected was the one who went to court to get an order to restrain the speaker from declaring his seat vacant, because he knew that by his defection, he ought to have lost his position. Now, when he went to court, he failed in court and rather the court made an order that the speaker was restrained henceforth from recognising him as a member of the house.

What happened on Monday, November 19, was formalising a decision that had already been taken. So I think it was a question of law and the constitution being the supreme law of the land, the speaker was right. Especially when it was now the defecting member who went to court. You cannot now pick and choose. In any case, if for any reason that member whose seat has been declared vacant believes strongly that his right has been trampled upon, as a lawmaker that you were, you don’t take the laws into your hands. There must be rule of law. If you think your right has been trampled upon, then go to court.

There are allegations that the house is doing the bidding of the state governor. How independent of the governor is the house?

There is a close working relationship between the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly and the governor for the interest of our people. Not that we don’t have differences. The mere fact that we don’t exchange fisticuffs does not mean we don’t have problems. But, because PDP is the majority in the house of assembly, and the state government is PDP, where we have issues and differences, we sit, talk and agree.

We’ve had course to disagree. For instance, we were told that the position of the governors in the 36 states of the country was that they did not support financial autonomy for the state houses of assembly. But you will recall that the Akwa Ibom state House of Assembly voted for financial autonomy. So if we are under the control of the governor, why did we not listen to the story that the governor was against financial autonomy for the state legislature? But we voted against it.

We have issues but we’re not rascals. You don’t expect the kind of scene that we saw on the 19th and carried out by members of the APC to happen between us and the governor simply because we disagree.