By Idongesit Ashameri - Uyo
Sam Ikon
The Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Sam Ikon, has called on the National Assembly to expedite action on Financial Autonomy for state legislature.
Ikon was reacting to public outcry by former legislators during the valedictory in honour of the late former speaker of the erstwhile Cross River State, the late Ndaeyo Uta.
Expressing disappointment at the present economic state of former legislators whom he said laid the foundation the state is built on today, Ikon maintained that the only solution to their welfare is not on the executive but on financial autonomy of the legislature.
While consoling the family of the late former speaker, he however encouraged them to reflect more on the positive legacies left behind by their late father.
Also, a member of the erstwhile Cross River State House of Assembly during 1979-1983 when the deceased was speaker, Chief Okokon Etuk, described the late former speaker as lion of the very controversial house, but decried what he called high level of abandonment that former legislators who laid the foundation for the Akwa Ibom of today had been made to experience.
“The present government has abandoned the elders. I want to plead that former legislators who contributed to the development of this state be taken care of. We attracted so much for this state but some of us are so poor that we don’t even have vehicles to convey us to this place”. he lamented.
Etuk, who was also full of blame for the deceased family, accused the former speaker’s family of abandoning their father whom he said was sick for about 10 years.