CAN, others condemn bombings, killings in Plateau

• PDP aspirant loses suit to nullify Dariye’s win in party’s primaries

The North Central leadership of Christian Association of Nigerian (CAN) in collaboration with heads of Church denominations and Christian organisations in Plateau State has condemned the wanton killings and recent bombings that have unleashed havoc in the state urging the state Police Commissioner, Mr. Nasiru Oki, to brace up to the challenge of ending the carnage.

Chairman, North-Central CAN, Rev Yakubu Pam, who led the Christian leaders to the office of Oki, noted that statistics have revealed that over 264 deaths have been recorded in Riyom and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas of the state since the 2015 elections that held barely two months ago.

Meanwhile, the Federal High Court sitting in Jos has dismissed the suit brought before it by the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) aspirant in the last Plateau Central Senatorial District primaries, Nde Alexander Molwus, who sued the party and its favoured candidate, Senator Joshua Dariye.

Molwus had approached the court to nullify Dariye’s election in his favour, because, according to him, Dariye was still a senator on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) that sponsored him, when PDP granted him a waiver to contest on the platform of the PDP.

Besides, he argued, through his counsel, Mr. Tob Kekemeke, that for anybody to emerge a candidate, such person must have been a card-carrying member of the party that is sponsoring him. Apart from that, he further contended, such a person must be a registered financial member of the party.

All these, he said, Dariye did not have which he said automatically disqualified him from the national assembly as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria representing the zone.

Molwus told the court that the party (PDP) erred in its decision by preferring an outsider to an insider who has been a founding member of the party from the outset and financially up to date.

Kekemeke has told journalists that; “Nde Molwus Alexander also contested in that particular primaries, came second to Dariye. The contention of Molwus is that according to PDP’s guidelines, anybody whose name is not on the party’s register cannot contest the election. His submission is that as at the time the primary election took place, Dariye’s name was not on the register of the PDP and so he was not qualified to contest the election.

CAN said it was saddened that Plateau, which houses the head offices of most Christian bodies in Nigeria has become a tinder box where every little provocation triggers violence, adding that the attack and burning of two Church buildings after the recent bomb blast was uncalled for.

Regretting that many citizens of the state have become traumatized having been rendered homeless by the incessant attacks and crises, Pam said CAN was in the office of the Police Commissioner to urge him to use his good position to bring the havoc to an end.

Appreciating the Police for living up to its task in preventing another explosion in ECWA recently, CAN said it was good that roadblocks have been mounted again to prevent further crimes in the state.

In his response, Oki said he was working assiduously with his team of other security agencies and state government to reduce crime in the state to the barest minimum, charging CAN to make necessary information at its disposal available to the police.

In the delegation were, Rev Gideon Para-Mallam of IFES, Pastor Balarabe Usman of NIFES, Rev Obet Dasham of COCIN, and other representatives of churches in Plateau State.