On Wednesday, June 30, 2010 Akwa Ibom State House Assembly organized a public hearing on the first amendment of the 1999 Constitution. The hearing was held at the State House of Assembly complex.

The attendance was quite impressive; people came from every part of the state for the public hearing. The State Chief Judge was present. Also in attendance were the State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice and also the civil society groups among others.

Some of the important issues that attracted criticisms from most of the speakers revolved around the area of minimum qualification for contesting election, carpet crossing, transmitting of letter by President or Governor to the National Assembly or State House of Assembly respectively, electoral Act, financial autonomy of State electoral body, Judiciary and State House of Assembly.

According to the State Chief Judge Hon. Idongesit Ntem Isua, the independence of the judiciary is a democratic necessity. She maintained that Nigerian democracy will make more progress if the judiciary is not funded by the executive. The Chief Justice stressed the fact that the legislature should also be financially independent.

Justice Idongesit equally sought to know if the recommendation that people should resign from office three months before the election is going to be implemented and if it will be from president to ward level; noting that in some countries, people still stay in the office and conduct free, fair and credible election.

The State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Hon. Ekpeyong Ntekim who spoke on the recommended minimum qualification strongly opposed the idea that only holders of OND and above should be considered eligible for election. He further stated that politics is all comers’ affairs and therefore should be made open.