…Legislators Set For Impeachment Of Chairman …Accuse Him Of Interference
…They Want To Install An Illiterate, Says Chairman
It was a free for all fight on Tuesday, July 3, 2012, at the premises of the Okrika Local Government Council, as lawmakers and other officials of the council threw caution to the winds.
The key that let loosed the doors of hell was the announcement on Monday, July 4, 2012, that the Leader of the Legislature, Hon. Golden Promise Ikpuku, has been suspended and Hon. Zachariah Loveday has been nominated as the leader pro tempore.
The commotion on Tuesday led to the hospitalization of both the Director, Clerk of the House, MR. A. K. F. Nsagane, and Hon. Zachariah Loveday.
A press release signed by Hon. Loveday, stated that an emergency sitting was held at the legislative chambers on Monday where he was nominated as leader Pro-tempore.
The release accused Hon. Ikpuku of misapplication of over N25m House vote, causing embarrassment, disdain and putting the House into ridicule by issuing without a resolution, a warrant of arrest on the Supervisor for Education, Hon. Opuda Amakiri and Council Treasurer, Mr. Ephraim Jumbo.
He was also accused of altering the 2012 Appropriation Bye-law at the behest of a cabal and that a three-man committee has been constituted to investigate the allegation.
Speaking to The Newswriter, Hon. Ikpuku dismissed the announced suspension and said, “from the day I assumed office on Monday 3, 2011, I have been the leader of the Okrika Legislative Council and I still remain so till today”.
He said he heard the announcement by the Ward 6 Councillor, Loveday Zachariah, while he was driving on Monday, which was not a sitting day, as only Tuesdays and Thursdays were their sitting days.
“It is an indication of the Executive interfering with Legislative Business”, he stated, when asked why he was suspended, adding that the chairman has been interfering in the Legislative business incessantly.
Buttressing his allegation that the Executive was involved, he said he was given a letter by 4pm on Wednesday, last week that he, the Executive Chairman CDC and about five from his Ward were to meet on the following day, Thursday.
“There is what we call routine work. Our legislative business is usually between 10am to 3.00pm and our legislation was not instituted that day. Again, knowing the executive, when matters of public interest is to be discussed, we usually could re-organize depending on what day it is and what legislative agenda we have. In any case, I honoured the invitation. Only for me to come back to discover that it was the chairman’s game plan to incite people against me, and in the process remove me while I was attending the other meeting he convened.
He said the chairmen tried to incite his ward against him by saying that some of the projects proposed in the budget were removed by him, the leader.
The projects include a road linking Ekerekana, Okochiri and Okoroama.
The Leader said the project is an NDDC project and was removed because, “any duplication of projects was not to be allowed in the budget”.
On the allegation of the N25m vote not accounted for, the leader said it was a vote to run the House and that no investigation has been carried out to indict him.
Commenting on the hospitalization of the Clerk of the House, Mr. Nsagane, the leader said “we had our sitting today and the councilors who see themselves as the new leaders were in that meeting presided by me, the leader of Okrika legislative council, Golden Ikpuku. I presided over the issues and after we adjourned the sitting, the Clerk of the House was leaving the chambers when he was suddenly attacked by a man called Asifamaka Christian , the Vice Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Okrika chapter and made away with his brief case containing vital documents. As I speak with you, he is lying critically ill in a hospital bed undergoing treatment”.
A letter was sent by the legislators to the Executive Chairman Barrister Tamuno Williams. The leader said he followed due process by sending the letter to him as it contained some allegations bordering on misapplication of funds, high handedness, duplication of projects and others, signed by four councilors, Hon. Ada Omoniwariofori, Councillor for Ward 9, Hon. Dima Duke, Ward 4 and Hon. Tammy Owubokiri, representing Ward 2.
On the cause of the fracas, the leader stated that it was as a result of “the fact that the executives and the principal officers of the council were called for investigations into how funds were used. If you recall last week the Okrika legislators went on air declaring warrant of arrest on the Treasurer of the Council, Mr. Ephraim Jumbo, Hon. Amakiri, Supervisor for Education, they were invited on several occasions to come and present to the House documents relating to what we were looking for as legislators as these documents would help us but repeatedly there was no response from their own end. So we decided to evoke the powers that we have as legislators and thus went ahead to issue warrant of arrest on those officers. As this was done, they in conjunction with the Executive Chairman knowing that we are foresworn to move forward they have now resorted to this unwholesome approach, fomenting trouble and sowing the seeds of discord and anarchy by inciting some of the legislators to disrupt the legislative business”.
He said that for peace to reign, all must respect the constitution of the country and that the Executive Chairman of the council should stop interfering in their legislative business and be concerned with his job as an executive.
Also speaking, Hon. Jamabo Boma Ise-erefima, the Whip of Okrika legislative council, corroborated the comments of the leader, adding that he was surprised to hear the news in his house that the leader of the House has been suspended and that the announcer has been constituting nuisance in the House and just resumed after being suspended.
He said during the sitting on Tuesday, all the 12 councillors were present, including the councilor that made the announcement and that he was surprised that as the new leader, he did not assume the leader’s seat.
Hon. Jamabo said the proceedings went on peacefully and legislative duties were carried out.
When we came out, we heard that the clerk of the House was attacked by Christian, the Vice Chairman of PDP, Okrika and went away with his brief case,” he stated, adding “there is a video coverage that covered the sitting today,” and whoever wished could watch it.
He said the councilors were ready to do their work without any inducement and that when the chairman came with the budget, they found so many discrepancies.
“The total sum of the budget was four point something billion. When we now took our time and checked page to page and calculated, it amounted to one point something trillion,” Jumbo stated, adding that even in 2011, the same thing happened.
He said, the duplicated NDDC projects were removed so that the money would be used for other purposes.
Jamabo said the chairman asked for a loan of N250m and it was approved, in 2011, and that chairman slashed their allowances, promising to slash his also, but ended up deceiving them as he never reduced his own.
He said the chairman did not account for the loan collected, so when he came back now asking for N300m loan, that they were worried on how to pay back the loan and he never gave details of it.
He said only two-third majority could suspend the leader of the House, and so those who said they have suspended him, did not understand the constitution.
He said the chairman was “trying to bring out crisis in Okrika that has for long been forgotten. We suffered a lot. We use this opportunity to thank the governor, that has made Okrika today very peaceful and today we can sleep with our two eyes closed. But the way the chairman is going about things, he is trying to bring back those problems again,” he stated.
The Clerk of the House when interviewed in the hospital, said, “we had our normal meeting today. Before the sitting, the councilors were properly informed. We had a successful session. It was at the conclusion of the session that a kind of mob trooped in and one of the councilors, Hon. Moses Sobere, pointed at me to the mob that ‘that is the clerk who has been causing all the confusion in Okrika’. It was at that point that they started beating me. I fell down and in the process somebody snatched my bag”.
However, in a release signed by his press secretary, Tamuno Geroge, the chairman of Okrika local government area, Barrister Tamuno Williams said the whole idea of the fracas was the desire of a cabal to “install an illiterate and a near fool that would be tele-guided and manipulated to dry the allocation accruing to the local government area”.
He said he would never give in to “their devilish manipulations and machinations”.
He also stated that Zachariah Loveday is now hospitalized after being beaten by the legislators, and that Hon. Sobere Moses and Hon. Agnes Atelibo were also beaten to stupor. (see text of the release on page 8)
Kenneth Amabipi
