… House of Assembly Lack Legal Right To Detect For Me – Transport Commissioner
While the seeming romance between Prince Idongesit Ituen-led House of Assembly Committee on Transport and Fingerprints Company, a former consultant for the State Ministry of Transport gets hotter, the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Uwemedimo Nwoko, has justified the sacking of the Fingerprints Company by the Transport Commissioner, Hon. Orman Esin, saying that there was no legal agreement between the company and the Ministry, hence, their job was illegal.
Speaking with our source, Nwoko, said neither him nor his Justice Ministry was aware of any contract agreement between the Ministry of Transport on behalf of the State Government and the said Fingerprints Company, an act he emphasized makes Fingerprint’s contract illegal and justifies the termination of such contract.
It could be recalled that penultimate week, the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner for Transport and Petroleum Resources, Hon. Orman Esin had ordered immediate termination of consultancy contract between his ministry and Fingerprint Company.
Defending Orman Esin’s act, Commissioner Nwoko said his attention was drawn to a certain document claimed to have been a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the ministry of Transport on behalf of the State government and a purported consultant, Fingerprints Company which source and signatories of the document he said was not known to him.
While distancing the State ministry of Justice and himself from the claimed MoU, the Attorney General stressed that constitutionally, no agreement with Akwa Ibom State Government can be valid without the knowledge of the Ministry of Justice as well as the signature of the State Attorney General.
“There was a document that was brought to me claiming to be an MoU between the purported consultant, Fingerprint and the Ministry of Transport on behalf of the State Government. That was my first time of seeing such document and my signature was not there. That alone makes such agreement illegal. Constitutionally, no agreement between the state government and anybody or organization is illegal without the knowledge and approval of the Ministry of Justice,” Nwoko stressed.
While urging the people of Akwa Ibom State to be law abiding, Commissioner Nwoko said all agencies of Government are duty-bound to work hand-in-hand in order to ensure good governance.
Meanwhile, our source reliably gathered that the termination of the Fingerprints Contract has been massively supported by transporters in the state who unanimously described it as a step toward sanitizing the transport sector.
Findings also showed that the purported revoking of Orman Esin’s termination order to Fingerprint by Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly Committee on Transport led by Hon. Idongesit Ituen has fallen on ‘stone-soil’ as the Transport Ministry remain bent on its earlier stance on grounds that the Committee lacks the legal right to detect for the Ministry. (Culled from Ndanti Ekuh)
