…sets up Ad-hoc committee to investigate fraud allegations against chairman
By Ubong Sampson — Uyo
The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly has suspended the Chairman of Mkpat Enin Local Government Council, Aniekpon Ekpo over allegations bothering on fraud, gross misconduct and misappropriation of funds.
Mkpat Enin is a local government area in Akwa Ibom South Senatorial District.
The suspension follows a report of the House Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs read at Plenary on Tuesday.
Recall that in October 2021, nine out of 14 councillors in the area had petitioned the state legislature against the chairman, accusing him of financial misappropriation, theft, abuse of office, among other allegations.
Upon receiving the petition, the House during plenary presided over by the Speaker, Aniekan Bassey, had referred the matter to its committee on local government and chieftaincy affairs to conduct investigations and report findings back to the House.
Presenting its report, Chairman of the committee, Mark Esset noted that the chairman had hauled out a grader belonging to the council since 15 April, 2021 and has not returned same till date.
NigerDelta Searchlight had earlier reported the committee’s order to the chairman to return the said grader and communicate same to the committee within two weeks which he said, the committee would be sitting again on the matter.
However, the committee never sat since then, neither had the committee reported back to the House, Speaker of the House had confirmed. When our correspondent in the state reached the committee chairman on phone to find out the cause of the delay, his response was that the committee was going to sit whenever it decides to sit.
Meanwhile, at the plenary where the under fire chairman was suspended, Esset, while presenting his report, had revealed that the grader purportedly returned to the council by the chairman was different from the council’s grader which he had taken out.
Esset also reported that the chairman had contracted a consultancy service to handle revenue generating in the area on behalf of the council, with no information on how the funds received were managed, as “monies were not paid into the revenue account of the council”.
The lawmaker said the chairman also failed to heed the advice of the Head of Service, Director of Finance, Director of Works of the Local Government, on the need to follow the Local Government Law and the Financial Regulations in the running of the administration of the council.
Esset in his report, also revealed the chairman had solely run the administrative functions of the council without carrying the vice chairman and other EXCO members, as well as with disregard to the role of the legislative council.
He noted also that aside the initial petition by the councillors, the committee had, during its sittings saw weightier allegations/petitions bordering on outright abuse of office and gross misconduct on the chairman’s part emerging from different parties.
Though Esset did not give details of the fresh allegations and contents of the petitions, NigerDelta Searchlight had gathered from reliable sources that the said allegations bothered on cases of unpaid debts and commitments which the chairman got into without fulfilling his part of the bargain.
According to our source, aside direct loans he allegedly took from people but failed, and in some cases, refused to repay, a particular report had gotten to the House about a contract promise which the chairman allegedly made to a Port Harcourt based banker, for which he (the banker) was made to commit some funds to in the bidding process. However, the banker neither got the said contract, nor his funds of about N4million naira refunded.
Considering the report after dissolving into a Committee of the Whole, and consequent upon the fresh and weighty petitions against the chairman bordering on fraud, the House ordered his immediate and indefinite suspension, pending the outcome of investigations of an Ad-hoc Committe set up by the speaker.
The House which ordered the Chairman to return the council’s original grader with immediate effect also directed the Council’s Vice Chairman, Mercy Bassey, to take over affairs of the council in acting capacity, pending the conclusion of investigation into the matter.
In his remark, the Speaker Bassey directed the Clerk of the House, Mrs Mandu Umoren to communicate the resolution of the House to the State Governor.
