Cross River Assembly Impeaches Speaker Ayambem, Police Seal Complex.
Cross River Assembly impeaches speaker Ayambem. That is what 17 members of the Cross River State House of Assembly said they have done in Calabar.
The man involved is Rt Hon Elvert Ekom Ayambem. He represents Ikom 2 State Constituency. He was elected speaker in June 2023. Now a group of his colleagues said they have removed him.
Ayambem has not accepted the action. He insists he remains speaker. He said the move against him does not stand.
The crisis did not stay inside the chamber. The Cross River Police Command moved in and temporarily shut down the Assembly complex. The reason was to stop a breakdown of law and order. The Nation reported that the mace, which is the symbol of authority for the House, could not be found after the drama.
This is not a small disagreement. When a House of Assembly cannot agree on who is speaker, it cannot do its work cleanly. Bills cannot be passed without doubt. Oversight cannot be done with full confidence. The mace issue makes it worse. Without the mace, the House cannot sit in a proper way.
The story behind the impeachment talk has been building. Members accused Ayambem of high handed leadership and poor handling of Assembly funds. There were complaints about welfare and about how the House was being run. Ayambem and his supporters dismissed the allegations and said the process used to remove him was wrong.
Under the rules, you need two thirds of members to remove a speaker. The Assembly has 25 members. The group that announced the impeachment said they had 17 votes. That meets the number on paper. But Ayambem’s camp said proper procedure was not followed and the sitting was not valid.
This type of fight has happened before in Cross River and in other states. It usually goes beyond the chamber. Party leaders step in. The governor is watched. Security agencies hold the complex. The courts are asked to decide who is the real speaker.
For Cross River, the timing is bad. The state is dealing with other heavy issues. There are flooding and disaster response problems in some local governments. There was a recent scandal over local government recruitment. There is also the long running oil well dispute with Akwa Ibom State. All of these need a functioning House of Assembly to pass resolutions and support executive action.
Now investors, civil servants and ordinary people in Calabar are asking a simple question. Who controls the legislature this week. That question alone slows down government.
The police sealing the complex is meant to calm things. It also freezes lawmaking. No sitting can happen until the place is reopened and the leadership question is settled. If the mace is truly missing, a new one has to be produced or the old one recovered. That itself can take time and adds drama.
What are the likely next steps. The first is political settlement. Elders of the APC in the state will meet both sides. The governor may call for calm. The second is legal. Ayambem may go to court to challenge his removal. The third is a fresh vote. If the 17 members can sit with the mace and follow procedure clearly, they can restate their position and elect a new speaker.
Until one of those happens, Cross River has two stories from one House. One side says Cross River Assembly impeaches speaker Ayambem and a new leadership will emerge. The other side says the speaker remains Ayambem and the action is null.
For the public, the details matter less than the result. People want to see the Assembly open, safe and working. They want to know that laws and budgets are being handled by a House that is united.
The police have done their part by shutting the complex to prevent violence. The next part belongs to the lawmakers. They have to show they can resolve their own fight without turning the Assembly into a security zone.
For now, Calabar is watching. The complex is locked. The mace is reported missing. The speaker says he is still speaker. The 17 members say he is impeached.
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