Judex Okoro, Calabar
Cross River State House of Assembly has refused to reconvene over unpaid allowances and other entitlements.
Investigations showed that the no-love- lost-relationship between the House and the state governor, Prof Ben Ayade, started shortly after the inauguration the 9th Assembly following the inability of the executive arm to meet its obligations to the lawmakers.
Sources close to the House revealed that for over four months now, the leadership made a series of requests to the governor with regard to their welfare, running cost, and failure to implement its resolutions.
Further findings showed that the state government was yet to provide the legislators with official vehicles to enable them perform their statutory function effectively.
Another source revealed that as at the time of filing this report, the speaker and other principal officers of the House were yet to be given their official cars as well as other paraphernalia of office.
This development might have necessitated the lawmakers’ refusal to reconvene as earlier scheduled.
They were expected to have resumed on September 10, but had not been able to do so till date.
At the Assembly complex, some members were sited speaking in muffled voices while a few of them were kept attending to their constituents in their offices.
Reacting, the Press Secretary to the Speaker of the CRSHA, Mr Hope Obeten, denied that the lawmakers had refused to reconvene.
Obeten said although the House was supposed to reconvene on September 10, its members could not because most of the principal officers including the Speaker and Deputy Speaker went for a conference in Abuja.
“I can tell you that many of them just came back and are in their various offices; you can come to the Assembly and confirm. The non-reconvening today has nothing to do with non-payment of allowances or issuance of official vehicles, that information was unfounded and untrue,” he stated.