Pandemonium In Akwa Ibom Assembly As House Declares Five Lawmakers Seats Vacant

There was panic yesterday at the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly as thugs invaded the complex to stop the House from sitting. 

Over hundred hoodlums arrived the complex situated at Udo Udoma Road, Uyo, in the early hours of yesterday, and blocked the main entrance.

The thugs,        sources said,  were mobilised by the five lawmakers, who recently defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

It was also learnt the invasion was aimed at preventing the House from sitting to declare their seats vacant.

The thugs blocked the main entrance and disrupted movement in and out of the complex. They made bonfires and shot sporadically into the air.

But for the intervention of security operatives, the thugs would have entered the Assembly but they smashed doors and windows.

The Assembly, however, held its plenary and declared the seats of the five vacant.

The legislators include Idongesit Ituen (Itu), Gabriel Tobby (Etim Ekpo/Ika), Victor Udofia (Ikono), Otobong Ndem (Mkpat Enin), and Nse Ntuen (Essien Udim).

The Speaker, Mr. Onofiok Luke, said the House took the decision in line with Section 109, sub. 1G of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

The House passed a motion, urging Governor Udom Emmanuel to name either the State University or Ibom International Airport after a former Governor, Victor Attah, to mark his of his 80th birthday today.