Senate condemns police invasion, seal off of Akwa Ibom Assembly, sets up committee

Senate Wednesday condemned the alleged Police invasion and seal off of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly by over one thousand, five-hundred policemen.

It also mandated its committee on Police Affairs to investigate the cause of the incident and, report back to the upper chamber within 48 hours.

This resolution followed an adopted point of order 42, moved by Senator Bassey Albert Akpan representing Akwa Ibom North East senatorial district.

In his presentation, Akpan said, “My point of order is in sealing off of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly this morning by over 1,500 armed policemen.

“A couple of weeks ago, I brought a point of order to this floor on the pending threat to elections in Akwa Ibom. Then, three days ago, the Speaker of the Akwa Ibom House of Assembly, acting on the order of a court of competent jurisdiction, in a case where the Speaker was a defendant, declared the seats of five members of the House of Assembly vacant.

“Let me place it on record that these five members of the State Assembly went to court to compel the Speaker not to declare their seats vacant upon their defection to a political party. It is on the basis of the judgement of the court that the Speaker declared their seats vacant.

“After this, the next thing we heard, I was told and I have seen in both print and social media is that three out of these five members of the House of Assembly went into the chamber, presided over by one of the members and said that they have impeached the Speaker of the State House of Assembly.

“Mr. President, just this morning, the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has been sealed off by over a thousand five hundred policemen. And I believe that a threat to democracy in Akwa Ibom State is a threat to democracy in Nigeria.

“It is on good authority that I am here on behalf of the entire citizens of Akwa Ibom State, and want to assert that this is an orchestrated attempt to cause violence and mayhem in Akwa Ibom State as we drive towards the general elections but we the Akwa Ibom people we have maintained and have actually sustained the peace that actually enveloped the state in the last three and half years.

“So, my motion is that this Senate should direct the Committee on Police and the Committee on Legislative Compliance to direct the Inspector-General of Police to redeploy the policemen from another constituted arm of government and to allow them to sit and deliberate and take positions and actions that will aid good governance of Akwa Ibom State. I believe that this Senate has a responsibility to carry out this resolution”.