By Jonathan Ugbal
The Cross River State House of Assembly has declared vacant, the seat of Honorable Okura Elucate Ekom (Obubra II) following his defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) last week Sunday.
The Assembly in an emergency sitting on Friday presided over by the speaker, Honorable John Lebo decided to invoke Section 109 sub section 1 (g) of the 1999 constitution as amended and declare Ekura’s seat vacant findings by CrossRiverWatch revealed.
It states that; “A member of a House of Assembly shall vacate his seat in the House if (g) being a person whose election to the House of Assembly was sponsored by a political party, he becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period for which that House was elected:
“Provided that his membership of the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
CrossRiverWatch gathered that the Assembly members held a meeting which lasted over 5 hours before going for the sitting which is the first held on a Friday, since the inception of the 8th assembly in june 2015.
It is unclear whether the act was backed by the state People’s Democratic Party or followed the directive of the leader of the party in the state, Governor Ben Ayade.
As at press time CrossRiverWatch was yet to reach Honorable Elucate for comments.
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