Mild Drama At AKHA As Alice Ekpenyong Looses Temper on Colleague

 

A mild drama ensued at the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly complex last week when the member representing Mbo State Constituency,Rt. Hon. Mrs Alice Ekpenyong  berated her colleague, Hon. Barr. Bassey Etienam publicly after a House session on Tuesday.
 According to this Paper’s checks, the two-term house member’s reaction was because her colleague raised a cardinal and fundamental point of order to suit the Standing Order of the House, just as he stated vividly that it was against the Order of the House for the items in a Bill to run at variance with the title of the Bill, and cited Sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the Bill which derailed  from the focus of the Bill to address devolution of properties to female children.  Etienam had said that such clause should be presented in a separate Bill.

Barr. Etienam, representing Orue-offong Oruko State Constituency had said in the floor of the house  while considering the bill at the committee of the Whole House that either the short-title be amended to accommodate that particular subject matter or the subject matter expunged from the bill.
The Speaker who reasoned with the fundamental point raised by   Barr. Etienam had ordered that the bill be stood down to enable individual members and the Committee cite relevant laws involved for proper guidance, comparison and possible amendments.  During the third reading, Hon. Alice Ekpenyong moved a motion for the faulted section of the bill to be expunged and that was done last Week Thursday .
Hon. Alice, believed to have been in such moods when under any little pressure, had unleashed her perceived anger on her colleague who she thought perhaps did not protect her interest in the matter.


In a telephone interview with this reporter, a prominent politician from Mbo local government area who did not want his name in print, had reasoned that Rt. Hon Alice’s apprehension at pursuing the said bill with zeal to the point of quarrelling with her colleague who she believed caused the bill to be delayed by being stood down was because she was trying to live up to the billing of her constituents who had informed her that high performance index like sponsorship of Bills and Motions  will be considered a worthy achievement for any person in the area seeking  to represent them in future in any higher office in Akwa Ibom State.
Hon. Alice was believed to be working against the tide as some persons from Oro extraction had wondered how she would cope with sending home a sitting house of reps member with a record of more than ten Motions and three bills in less than one year and six months in the National Assembly when she may have found it a herculean task to roll out bills in a House of Assembly of 26 members, talk less of a 360 House of reps membership strength. They said they were waiting to see another of such wonders of the world in 2015.
However, it was still not clear why Rt. Hon. Alice Ekpenyong decided to fall-out on a colleague who was believed to be making a voice of his people heard in the hallowed chamber on a matter which would affect some, if not all of them.
Some pundits who watched the mild drama as staged by a second timer in “the people’s Assembly” could not help than turn the books to recall a disgraceful but pathetic incidence during the public Hearing on the same bill at Ibom Hall some time last year when a little pressure exerted on her office caused her to push-away some physically challenged persons who throng into Ibom Hall to see her and many of them were said to have fallen down in the process. Observers at that event rated her low, when they considered her office as the Welfare Officer of the 5^th Assembly.
Some staff of the Assembly were said to have been highly embarrassed when she decided to take it upon herself chasing people away from collecting drinks from the high table after the occasion of the end of the 1^st legislative year of the 5^th Assembly.
On inquiry, those who volunteered information and never wanted named in this report for fear of being victimized alleged that Hon. Alice Ekpenyong, apart from losing temperament when pushed by any little pressure, was never akin to giving even people who go to look for her at the Assembly, a listening ear.
Meanwhile, the Bill christened, ”A Bill for a Law to Prohibit certain Obnoxious traditional Widowhood Practices and Rites”,  said to have been sent to the House of Assembly by the Office of  her Excellency, Mrs Ekaetter Unoma Akpabio, was passed last week.