By Nelson Utip
Honourable Bassey Akiba, The member of the House of Representatives for the Calabar Municipal/Odukpani Federal Constituency has denied the rumours that he is planning to defect to The All Progressives Congress APC, in spite of his romance with APC members in Cross River State, the Lawmaker said in an interview that he has no intention of dumping the party that brought him to power.
He Akiba told Newsmen in an interview on Wednesday in Calabar that he remains a committed member of the Labour Party despite his interactions with APC members in his constituency. “There is bound to be a rumour in any political environment. For me, I am still a bonafide member of the Labour Party. “I have no intention to defect from the Labour Party. I am a representative of the people of my constituency. “I relate with all categories of people in my constituency because all calibre of individuals elected me to represent all the parties.
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“As far as my constituency is concerned, I am working with everybody irrespective of party affiliation. “Irrespective of the fact that the Labour Party is the party that brought me into office, I am working with both the APC, PDP, Labour Party and non-party people residing in the constituency which I represent. “I have no intention to defect to any other party. I remain a bonafide member of the Labour Party. I enjoy working with the Labour Party.” Hon Akiba said on the trending issue of Local Government Autonomy he said, “It is unreasonable for anyone to claim that local government elections should lack autonomy. “I strongly advocate for speedy conduct of local government elections to usher in council chairmen.
“I was a beneficiary of the local government system. I was a local government council chairman for Odukpani local government area. “I know how important it is for local government council executive to take full charge of local government administration. “It will be ridiculous for anyone not to support the conduct of local government elections just because he or she wants his cronies to remain in control of local government funds.”
