Senators Embark On Hunger
Strike
Obiora Ani, Abuja
National
Assembly members from Cross River State have
embarked on a two-week hunger strike to press home
their dissatisfaction over the ceding of seventy-six
oil wells in the state to neighbouring Akwa Ibom
State.
Addressing Senate Correspondents at the National
Assembly, Abuja, the Chairman of the caucus, Senator
Bassey Ewa Henshaw said the unilateral ceding of the
entire Cross River State to Akwa Ibom by the Revenue
Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission and
the National Boundary Commission was done in bad
faith.
Senator Ewa Henshaw said the tree senators and eight
members of the House of Representatives from the
state are on the hunger strike to draw the attention
of the citizenry to what he described as the
injustice to Cross River State by the two
commissions.
Return Tickets
In a related development , senators of the ruling
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Nigeria are
demanding a return ticket to the Senate from the
leadership of the party ahead of the country’s 2011
general elections.
At an interactive session with the Chairman of the
Party, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, in Abuja, the PDP
senators led by the Senate President, David Mark,
said that the huge resources already invested on
them and their experiences in the art of legislative
assignments would be wasted if not given the
opportunity to return.
Senator Mark said the continued high turnover of
lawmakers to the legislative house at every
election, does not give room for its growth.
He said that unlike the executive and the judiciary,
the legislature which is the hallmark of democracy
needed to be sustained with growing experiences of
members.
The National Chairman of the party, Prince Vincent
Ogbulafor praised the cordial relationship between
the Senate and the executive arm of government and
urged its sustenance.
Qasim/Yinka