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From Jude Owuamanam, Jos
Concerned All Progressives Party (APC) youth leaders in Plateau State have described the non-inauguration of the remaining six lawmakers, whose elections were validated by the Court of Appeal, as a “time bomb” and “ill-wind that will not blow anybody any good”.
They described the APC in Plateau as a “political orphan” despite their contribution to the electoral victory of, and support for, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his administration.
The appellate court had sacked 16 members of the party elected under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and declared 16 APC lawmakers as validly elected.
However, since then, while the rest have been sworn in, six have remained in limbo due to their alleged refusal to sign an undated resignation letter and an undertaking not to participate in any move to remove the state governor, Caleb Mutfwang, from office. This is because the APC would be the majority party in the 24-member House of Assembly.
Addressing reporters in Jos on Friday, the coordinator of the group, Honourable Gwalson Mutshak, described as absurd “the situation where the governor, in concert with the Speaker, who incidentally is from a minority party, made it mandatory that for the 16 APC members to be sworn in, they must first of all write an undated letter of resignation with an affidavit stating that the decision to do so was voluntary.”
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The group expressed disappointment that “for the first time in the political history of this country, a sitting governor could call the bluff of an important institution like the judiciary without sanction from any quarters. It is only in Plateau State that the governor openly disrespected the electoral process and the constitution by refusing to accept the verdict of the election petition tribunal.”
They were dismayed that “instead, the governor formulated his own conditions for executing the decision of the election petition tribunal.”
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The group said, “It is on record that the APC defeated [the] PDP by coming second after the Labour Party during the presidential election, in spite of the well-orchestrated campaign against the Muslim-Muslim ticket of Tinubu/Shettima by the PDP. Regrettably, the APC has become a subject of ridicule and mockery because of the way Governor Mutfwang and the PDP have flagrantly violated the constitution and disrespected the rule of law with impunity in Plateau State.
“As you are aware, Plateau State has always been in the news for bad reasons as a result of the actions or inactions of the ruling PDP government, which to a large extent has created bottled-up, combustible anger, ready to burst into flames anytime in the state.”
The APC stakeholders described the governor’s action as not only autocratic and unheard of but [one that] defied all sense of responsibility, democratic norms, and political decency from a person who himself is a product of democracy, as well as the rule of law.
“As things stand now, six members of the APC who have refused to be coerced into that unwholesome condition of signing their resignation letters as a precondition for their swearing-in are still being denied and refused to be sworn in by the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly. Unfortunately, the action of the governor has deprived six constituencies [of their] voices in the legislature for nearly seven months since they won their cases at the election petition tribunals.
“This misuse of power and despicable attitude of the governor [have] been creating tension and anxiety, to the extent that the patience of, most especially, people of the six affected constituencies and that of the APC supporters are fast running out, coupled with the kind of provocative innuendoes perpetrated by the Plateau State government.
“Regrettably, the APC, which holds the ace at the centre, has been living politically at the mercy of the PDP to the extent that the APC supporters are denied even palliatives and other forms of social interventions sent to the state by the federal government.
“This untoward attitude of the Plateau State government has painfully resonated with the APC and made them look like political orphans in the country.”
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