C’River Assembly impeaches Speaker

The Cross River House of Assembly, on Wednesday, impeached the Speaker, Mr Elvert Ayambem, over issues of gross misconduct and high-handedness.

The speaker’s impeachment was carried out during a sitting of the house in which he was presiding.

The impeachment followed a motion moved by the member representing Calabar South 1, Mr Effiong Ekarika, which was seconded by Mr Charles Omang, representing Bekwara constituency.

The motion was thereafter unanimously supported by other members of the house present at the sitting.

Moving his motion, Ekarika stated that Anyambem had grossly indulged in administrative misconduct, high-handedness and financial misappropriation.

17 out of 25 members of the assembly signed the notice for the Speaker’s impeachment.

In the notice, Anyambem was said to have indulged in arbitrary expenditure, contrary to Section 9(1) of the state Legislative Funds Management Law, 2021.

The notice stated that he misappropriated the sum of N48 million meant for the payment of the assembly’s electricity bills.

He was also accused of misappropriating N404.6m representing two per cent of the monthly revenue collected by the state Internal Revenue Service, and meant for oversight functions of the assembly.

“The Speaker misappropriated the sum of N19.4m being deductions from the local government councils which he willfully failed to disclose to members,” the notice read in parts.

After the impeachment, the mace was taken away by the members.

Attempts to speak to the impeached Speaker proved abortive as he did not take calls or respond to text messages.

NAN