Governor Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom state has sacked two commissioners accused of having links with the immediate past Senate minority leader Godswil Akpabio.
Senator Akpabio is expected to decamp from the opposition People’s Democratic Party PDP to the ruling All Progressives Party APC.
Mr. Emmanuel Udom sacked the commissioners with immediate effect for what he called acts of disloyalty.
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The sacked commissioners are the Commissioner for Labour, Productivity and Manpower Development, Mr Ibanga Akpabio, and the commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Mr. Victor Antai.
While announcing the disengagement of the commissioners from the service of the Akwa-Ibom state government, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Charles Udoh, said both commissioners had to be removed from the State Executive Council for disloyalty to the governor.
Mr. Ibanga, who is a younger brother to the senator was sacked alongside Antai for receiving Akpabio, a former governor of the state and Emmanuel’s predecessor, at the Ibom International Airport on Tuesday.
Akpabio had flown into the state preparatory to his planned defection from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Congress APC.
Mr. Udoh said the commissioners had to be removed from the state executive council following their reluctance to comply with good governance processes.
“With the development, they have been mandated to handover to the Permanent Secretary in their respective ministries before close of work on Wednesday August 8,’’ he said.
The commissioner stressed that the duo had shown complete disloyalty to Emmanuel and therefore could not continue to remain in the state executive.
The former senate minority leader tendered his resignation on Tuesday and has revealed his intentions to formally defect to All Progressives Congress on Wednesday.
Senator Murray Bruce representing Rivers had on Tuesday accused Mr. Akpabio of being one of the orchestrators of the siege of the National Assembly by the DSS calling him a traitor and a coward.