Plateau Assembly bye-election: Pengana warns APC against unpopular candidate

Following an announcement by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to conduct a bye-election into the vacant Pengana State Constituency in Bassa Local Council of Plateau State, the youths and women of the community have threatened to boycott the said election, if APC did not consider replacing the late Ezekiel with his wife.

Afon, an APC member in Plateau State House of Assembly, died a few hours after he was re-elected in March 9, 2019, to represent the constituency. Since then, his seat has been vacant until the new Assembly Speaker, Abok Nuhu Ayuba, informed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of the existence of a vacancy. The protesting women cited examples of Plateau State House of Assembly Majority Leader, Gyang Fulani, whose wife automatically replaced him, when he was killed by hoodlums.
  
The Speaker’s notification led to the scheduling of the bye-election, though APC is yet to name any candidate that will fly the party’s flag, holding on August 3.
Speaking on behalf of the youths, Lere Samson of Gurum Ward, said Pengana was originally a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Constituency, but that it was because of the love for Afon that made the people to vote for him.
 
“Afon was first elected into the Assembly under the PDP in 2015, but defected to APC in 2017, and the people massively followed him to APC because of his antecedents, and he was still re-elected under the umbrella of the APC,” he said. He stressed that any wrong moves or fielding of an unpopular candidate by APC, the PDP would retake Pengana in the forthcoming bye-election.