Seventeen members of the Cross River State House of Assembly on Wednesday removed the Speaker of the House, Hon Alvert Ayambem over allegations of mismanagement, Misconduct, financial misappropriation and indifference to welfare of members.
Hon Ayambem’s removal was made public in an impeachment notice signed by 17 out of the 25 members of the State House of Assembly which they later later affirmed in a Press Briefing held at the metropolitan Hotel in Calabar.
Vanguard also learned that consultations, delivration are ongoing as the house was yet to elect another Speaker to succeed the embattled Ayambem at the time of his report.
The 17 members described Ayambem as a tyrant who according to them undermines their interest and has been allegedly involved in various forms of financial misappropriation.
The speaker was impeached via a motion under maters of urgent public importance inline with order 24 of the Cross River State Assembly rules.
His removal according to them was based on the grounds of gross financial misconduct, incompetence and wrong conduct of plenary proceedings, non compliance and total failure to convene leadership meetings.
The impeachment notice reads: “Having met the Constitutional requirements of two-third majority( 17 members)we the under-listed members of the Cross River State House of Assembly hereby pass a vote- of-no- confidence on Rt. Hon. Elvert Ayambem, Speaker of the House of Assembly and he is hereby removed.”
Hon. Ayambem is also accused of “misappropriation of the sum of N48,000,000.00 (Forty-Eight MillionNaira) meant to pay electricity bills for the House of Assembly complex and the House of Assembly Quarters, Misappropriation of 2% of all revenue collected by the Internal Revenue Service (|RS) monthly for oversight functions of the House of Assembly in line
with Section 18(a)(i) of the Cross River State Revenue Administration Law 2011 as amended to the tune of N404,683,855.1 0 (Four Hundred and Four Million, Six Hundred and Eighty-ThreeThousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty-Five Naira, Ten Kobo).”
Other allegations include; “Misappropriation of the sum of N19,437, 844.00 (Nineteen Million, Four Hundred and Thirty-Seven Thousand, Eight Hundred and forty-five Naira) from Local Government deduction and 11 months deductions which he allegedly failed to disclose to members.”
The motion for his impeachment was moved by Honorable Effiong EKarika, representing Calabar-South-1 and was Seconded by Honorable Charles Omang Omang representing Bekwarra state constituency in the Assembly.