The Scoop Recalls: Cross River legislator who assaulted police officer has a history of assault



When news broke about an assault on a female police officer, Irene Ani, by a female lawmaker and the chief whip of the Cross River state assembly, Hon. Uduak Akiba, we remembered that female lawmakers in that state assembly had been in the news in the past over a ridiculous show of shame.

READ: Report:- Female lawmaker allegedly assaults female police officer in Calabar

READ: Meet the female legislator with the most amazing blocking skills as she denies alleged assault

It was a long time ago so we assumed that the characters would be different, but just to be sure we went back to the archives and re-checked, and – voila – the central character in this latest incident, Hon. Akiba, was also the central character in the last incident, and it did not make for a good reading.

It was in 2007, in the early days of the last assembly. Akiba and another female legislator, Pauline Ekuri of Etung constituency, engaged each other in slaps and blows at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport in Calabar, even tearing each other’s clothes. The duo were suspended for a month by the assembly as a result. It was a most embarrassing and unfortunate incident.

Akiba, who represents Calabar Municipality, and Ekuri were on the same Virgin Airways flight from Abuja to Calabar, and witnesses at the time said they engaged themselves in insults and abuses during the flight on September 15, 2007. Both of them were in the delegation of the Cross River first lady, Obioma Imoke, who went to Aso Rock to visit former Nigerian first lady, Hajia Turai Yara’adua in other to present her poverty alleviation plan to the First Lady.

But the two women had a history. According to PM News which reported the story at the time,:

“The duo do not see eyeball to eyeball since 2003 when they were in the Women Affairs Commission, our source said. ‘The presence of one of them in the same flight stirred up anger which led to sharp exchanges while aboard the Virgin Nigeria flight to Calabar,’ said our source.

“Appeals by other members of the delegation and passengers to the ladies to stop the quarrel fell on deaf ears as they allegedly hurled invectives at each other.”

So when they alighted from the plane at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, the report said “Uduak Akiba decided to engage her colleague in a fight. The bulky woman punched and scratched the light complexioned Ekuri who was her former boss and inflicted severe injuries on her.”

Ekuri was actually Akiba’s former boss at the state’s Women Affairs Commission. In 2003, Akiba served as a special assistant to Ekuri. As the story went, Akiba had the ears of the state’s former first lady, Onari Duke, and was allegedly feeding the first lady with information on the activities of her boss, who was said to be consistently complaining that she was made to sign documents but the “money was not going into her pocket”.

Again, according to PM News,

“This complaint irked Onari who removed Ekuri in 2005 and replaced her with her former aide, Uduak Akiba.

“This development generated bad blood between the two ladies and has since lingered.

“During Duke’s last days in office, he discovered that most of the reports on Ekuri were not true and he had to compensate her with the state assembly slot and Uduak Akiba, who had more or less become a liability on the Dukes was also picked for the state Assembly through the Calabar Municipality and its former occupant, Hon. Eta Mbora forced out. “

We earlier brought you report that in this latest incident involving the assault of the police officer, Akiba addressed some reporters and denied the charges. However, in 2007, when reporters met her, she screamed at them, “Get out. I have a meeting now,” she said.

The state house of assembly was so embarrassed then by the reports, that it was forced to suspend the two lawmakers for their shameful act. A resolution by the House described the incident between the two ladies as “ugly and regrettable as there was an important passenger on the said flight which was already air-borne.”

The House subsequently instituted a five-man committee, led by member representing Yala 1 constituency, Honourable Larry Odey, to investigate the incident and make appropriate recommendations to the House. After the investigation by the Odey committee, they recommended the suspension of the two lawmakers. They were also ordered to tender a written apology to the House at the expiration of their suspension.

Their action also caused the then Speaker, Frank Adah to write a letter of apology to Governor Liyel Imoke, regretting the incident.

Ekuri has since left the assembly, having failed to win re-election, Akiba on the other hand returned and was made chief whip in the new assembly. The rest, as they say, is history.