Rt. Hon. Elvert Ekom Ayambem has been impeached as the Speaker of the Cross River State House of Assembly.

The Speaker was impeached on Wednesday by 17 members of the house over allegations of misappropriation of funds.

The impeachment motion was moved by Hon. Effiom Ekarika representing Calabar South 1 Constituency and seconded by Hon. Omang Charles Omang representing Bekwarra State Constituency.

Rt Hon Elvert Ayambem was elected Speaker of the 10th Cross River State House of Assembly in June 2023.

Ayambem represents Ikom 2 State Constituency in the Houses of Assembly.

More to follow…

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 poll, Peter Obi, has criticised the federal government for the spate of killings in Plateau and Benue states.

On Monday, gunmen attacked Zurak village in Wase LGA of the state and reportedly killed more than 40 residents.

Obi described the latest killings as one too many, and asked the federal government to live up to its constitutional responsibility of protecting lives and property.

“One continues to be disheartened by the persistent reports of terrorist attacks across Plateau, Benue, and other parts of the country,” the former Anambra governor wrote on X.

“The recent reports of an attack in Zurak village in Wase LGA of Plateau state which has left about 40 people dead and many others hospitalized remains a very sad one, which must be condemned in strong terms.

“This adds to the growing number of these heinous attacks. These repeated attacks particularly in Plateau have become too many to make any discerning mind worrisome.

“Again, I call on the government to rise to its responsibilities of securing the lives and property of Nigerians with corresponding actions.

“Above all, we must take every necessary measure to drastically reduce insecurity in the nation by investing in the critical areas of human development; education, health, and lifting people out of poverty.”

On April 18, gunmen killed at least 12 people in the Tilengpat community of Pushit district, in Mangu LGA of Plateau.

Before this, gunmen killed at least 10 residents of Mandar Shar and Kopnanle villages under Mangu and Bokkos LGAs.

There have also been persistent gunmen attacks in the north-central state of Benue, exacerbated by an age-long farmer-herder crisis.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei led prayers for late president Ebrahim Raisi on Wednesday as huge crowds thronged the capital Tehran for his funeral procession.

Flanked by top officials, Khamenei said prayers over the coffins of the eight dead from Sunday’s helicopter crash, who also included foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

A sea of mourners filled the open space around Tehran university, where the prayers were held before the funeral procession moved on to Enghelab and Azadi squares.

State television said that Raisi, who had been widely seen as Khamenei’s most likely successor as supreme leader, had received a “millionfold farewell” from the people of Tehran.

“We have lost a prominent personality. He was a very good brother. He was an efficient, competent, sincere, and serious official,” Khamenei todl visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Mohamed Shia al-Sudani.

The leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, joined the procession, as did the deputy leader of Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Naim Qassem.

“I say once again… we are sure that the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its support for the Palestinian people,” Haniyeh told the crowd to chants of “Death to Israel”.

‘Martyr of service’
In the capital, huge banners have gone up hailing the late president as “the martyr of service”, while others bade “farewell to the servant of the disadvantaged”.

Tehran residents received phone messages urging them to join the funeral procession.

“I was sad, I came to calm my heart and calm the heart of the supreme leader,” said one mourner who gave her name only as Maryam and said she had travelled from Varamin, south of Tehran, to pay her last respects.

Raisi’s helicopter crashed into a fog-shrouded mountainside in northwestern Iran on Sunday as he headed back to the city of Tabriz after attending a ceremony on the border with Azerbaijan.

A huge search and rescue operation was launched, involving help from the European Union, Russia and Turkey. State television announced Raisi’s death early on Monday.

The Iranian military said Wednesday that domestically produced drones had played the key role in locating the crash site.

Burial in Mashhad
Funeral ceremonies for Raisi and his entourage began on Tuesday with processions through Tabriz and the Shiite clerical centre of Qom drawing tens of thousands of black-clad mourners.

From Tehran, the bodies will be taken to Iran’s second city of Mashhad, Raisi’s hometown in the northeast, where he will be buried on Thursday evening after funeral rites at the Imam Reza shrine.

Khamenei, who wields ultimate authority in Iran, has declared five days of national mourning and assigned vice president Mohammad Mokhber, 68, as caretaker president until a June 28 election for Raisi’s successor.

Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri, who was Amir-Abdollahian’s deputy, has been named acting foreign minister.

The country’s armed forces chief Mohammad Bagheri has ordered an investigation into the cause of the helicopter crash.

Raisi was elected president in 2021, succeeding the moderate Hassan Rouhani at a time when the economy was battered by US sanctions imposed over Iran’s nuclear activities.

The ultra-conservative’s time in office saw mass protests, a deepening economic crisis and unprecedented armed exchanges with arch-enemy Israel.

After his death, Russia and China sent their condolences, as did NATO, while the UN Security Council observed a minute’s silence.

Messages of condolence also flooded in from Iran’s allies around the region, including the Syrian government as well as Hamas and Hezbollah.