Speaker of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Barrister Onofiok Luke, Tuesday, announced the extension of the tenure of Local Government Transition Committees to another six months following a request by Governor Udom Emmanuel.
The extension of the Committees’ tenure, which was billed to end by January 4, 2017, will bring the duration of the non-elected Local Government administration to 24 months.
While this was going on, the tenure of his colleague in far away Jigawa State, Idris Garba, was brought to an end through impeachment, presided over by the deputy Speaker, Ahmed Garba.
The member representing Gwaram Constituency, Isa Idris, was elected new Speaker of Jigawa State House of Assembly during a sitting attended by 23 members.
The Clerk of the house, Hussaini Ali, earlier announced that he received an impeachment notice signed by 25 of the 30 assembly members, and which he read on the floor of the house.
Mr. Ali disclosed that members of the assembly impeached the speaker due to alleged high handedness and abuse of power.
The Deputy Speaker read the impeachment notice on the floor of the house, and confirmed the number of members that signed the notice.
Mr. Garba said that 25 of the 30-member assembly that endorsed the impeachment notice showed that it met the constitutional requirement of two third to impeach any of its principal officers.
“With this development, I hereby declare the seat of the Speaker vacant and a fresh election should be conducted to elect the new speaker,” he said.
Reports have it that two members– Isa Dutse of Dutse Municipal constituency and Isa Idris of Gwaram constituency– were nominated for the election to replace the impeached Speaker.
Isa Idris, however, defeated Isa Dutse with 12 to six votes, while five members were indifferent.
In his acceptance Speech, the new Speaker promised to run an open door policy and solicited members’ support and cooperation.
