Secret Reporters No place to hide
Secret Reporters
The game for 2019 in Akwa Ibom State has started very early with the House of Assembly Speaker, Onofiok Luke the target and the pawn on the chessboard, Secret Reporters can authoritatively report, as attacking the bill is to attack the Speaker since the sponsor is his main
This medium has followed keenly the real property charge bill which has raised uproar in the State, especially among the populace, following instigation by four members of the House of Assembly, who came out publicly to oppose it. Secret Reporters has however gathered that it is all smokescreens to get out Onofiok Luke from the exalted seat.
Findings by us revealed that there has been silent agitation in the legislature by few members from Uyo Federal Constituency who believe that they should be the region to produce the Speaker. But Secret Reporters findings from our Government House and House of Assembly insiders unveiled facts that zoning in the State has never been on Federal Constituency but on Senatorial District. According to a very knowledgeable source, if it was based on Federal Constituency, Udom Emmanuel won’t have been governor, as they had earlier produced one.
We learnt that the four lawmakers from Uyo Federal Constituency namely Hon. Nse Essien aka Indo representing Onna Constituency , Rt. Hon. Aniekan Uko (Ibesikpo Asutan), Hon. Mark Esset (Nsit Atai), Hon. Aniekan Bassey (Uruan) and Monday Eyo (Uyo) are the cabal in the house who sees themselves as untouchable, and still feel hurt at the emergence of Onofiok Luke as Speaker.
Secret Reporters high profile sources confided that during the short time which Aniekan Uko was surprisingly made Speaker even though a first timer against the rules of the house, the remaining four persons operated him like pawn and used him to milk money from the coffers. Even House Committees were selected by them and handed over to him to just announce without resistance.
Onofiok Luke emergence as the Speaker according to one of the Pro Lawmakers who spoke to Secret Reporters changed the old order, as he broke the rank and files of the cabal, by disbanding the committees and sharing evenly. “Knowing he has a political future and a product of the masses, he had to break away from the looting spree and chose to renovate the House of Assembly as well as also sponsor two bills out of the Seven bills already passed in his time, with the bills likely to be thirteen at the end of the 2nd quarter legislative session”.
This action has not gone down well with the five lawmakers, especially engineered from inside by Nse Essien, who represents the Governor in the legislature and feels he should call the shot and not Onofiok. Our independent findings revealed that Essien is unhappy with Udom for being too close with Onofiok instead of him. They fear the Speaker’s popularity with the masses as well as the political elites.
THE CABAL STRIKE
Ironically, the property bill which is sponsored by Usoro Akpanusoh, a Pro Onofiok lawmaker and Chairman of Finance and Appropriation Committee which was initially accepted by the fifteen Co-Sponsors became the hammer to hit on the Speaker as being anti masses.
The bill we can report unchallenged was not only verbally accepted by the 15 lawmakers but was first read on May 15th 2016 with their names on it before the floor and they all agreed with no single objection from them. It was all planned by the five lawmakers to come out in the public and also condemn it before the people to be seen as true lovers of the masses.
These same five persons had earlier planned to impeach the Speaker but the lid was blown open by a local tabloid The Mail Newspaper. The property bill which is meant for the rich and big companies is now capitalized on to mount political pressure on Udom to distance himself from the Speaker, who Akwa Ibomites believe can deliver the Governor alongside Senator Godswill Akpabio in 2019. Out of the 15 Co-Sponsors, only the five persons from Uyo Federal Constituency have come out to publicly lie that they were never contacted, contrary to credible findings by Secret Reporters that they have been part of it from Day One.
The bill however according to our investigations is targeted at Mobil Nigeria and other big companies with properties all over the State yet pay no tax on them as obtainable in Rivers State. Usoro who is the major sponsor of the bill is from Esit Eket/Ibeno State Constituency, where Mobil is located.
THE FINANCIERS AND THEIR MOTIVES
One of those behind the House of Assembly cabals using the property bill as a tool is the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Mr Nsima Ekere, who is gunning for the gubernatorial seat in 2019 and sees Onofiok continued stay as Speaker a threat to him. According to a government house source, the more the Speaker remains on seat, the more he remains relevant to deliver votes for Udom against Nsima. He is the major financier.
Another person secretly fueling the cabal to kick out the property bill is House of Representative member, Sam Ikon who is from the same Federal Constituency with Onofiok. We gathered that he fears the Speaker will take his coveted position in 2019 with his speed of political growth and the only way to stop him is to get him kicked out and unpopular in the State.
Uwem Ita Etuk who is the immediate past Commissioner for Lands/Town Planning and also a former State Party Chairman is gunning for the Senate and is a major financier of the cabal. He also dread Onofiok Luke who may not support him in his bid.
The bill.
