PDP accuses Lalong of fuelling insecurity in Plateau

The National leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Plateau State Governor Simon Bako Lalong of fuelling insecurity in Plateau state.

According to the party, the governor knew what he had done by not conducting election in Jos North, Jos South, Riyom and Barkin Ladi local councils on October 10, 2018, was a democratic aberration as there was and is still peace, which the governor himself has been bandying all about.

Addressing a press conference yesterday at the PDP State Secretariat in Jos, the state Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, John Akans (KSM), who spoke for the party at the national level, said that the governor himself knew as a qualified lawyer that what he did was an act of illegality.

“You are a father of the state, you took an action that was illegal only for you to disappeared out of the state. You are seeing it as journalists; you must help us in trying to bring about democracy because that is the best governance so far.

“Again, the Trade Fair going on now, if you say there is insecurity, why do you have to invite people to come to the state? I don’t see insecurity in trying to deny us elections. Why is the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) scared of conducting elections in those four local government areas?”

Akans said that the election conducted by the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) on that fateful day was a sham, which excluded the four councils.He pointed out that, “The first assignment of the governor was the dissolution of democratically elected local government council chairmen and their legislators and replaced them with transition committee, which lasted three years before an election was conducted with a ‘kangaroo’ result against the wishes of majority voters.

“This undemocratic exercise by Governor Lalong and the APC can only be described as a political circus. What worries us most is the continuous leadership failure characterised by maladministration at all levels as a result of incompetence and non adherence to the rule of law in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended. For the avoidance of doubt, section 7 (1) spelt out clearly how the Local Government Administration will be run.”

Akans argued, “As a party, we believe that democratic governance has the practice of periodic renewal of authorisation through periodic elections in genuinely seeking the consent and mandate of the people not to rule but to govern them. Competence, skills and robust knowledge –based governance, as well as accountability, should be the watchword of every responsible leadership, instead what we have today under APC is a government that runs against Nigerian constitution.”