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| Rt. Hon. Eteng |
ByJoseph Obung
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members of the Cross River State House of Assembly (CRSHA), who refused to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) have dragged the speaker and 17 other members who defected, to court.
Recall that 18 House members had joined Governor Ben Ayade in APC as soon as the governor dumped the umbrella party. Seven member however remained with the PDP.
The suit filed by the seven PDP members came up for hearing in the Vacation Court, situated at Moore Road, Calabar.
The plaintiffs are accusing the speaker and principal officers of deliberately sharing allowances accruing to PDP members.
Spokesman for the plaintiffs and member representing Calabar municipality in the House, Efa Esua, in an interview, said the defendants have filed their defense accordingly.
“They have filed their defense and preliminary objection to the suit and served us a day to hearing, but we are entitled to some days to file our response and so the matter was adjourned to September 14, 2021 for arguments on the motion on preliminary objection.
“We did not take the state government to court as insinuated. We took our colleagues, 18 of them who defected to the APC, to court. Our colleagues, led by the speaker, have constituted a law to themselves.
“When our money comes from the state government, after taking their own, they would sit down and share our own allowances among themselves. That is overhead and local government allowances.
“They have done that for the past three to four months purporting to obey instruction from the higher authority. This is what they have done to seven of us who refused to defect with them to APC.
“We are praying the court to cause them to give our monies, that is, what is due us, to us. The clerk of the assembly is trying to deny it, saying that there is no such thing and that allowances are used in running the affairs of the assembly. But we have documents to show how they shared our money,” he submitted
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