By Chinelo Obogo
A civil society organisation, Plateau New Equity Group, has cautioned Governor Caleb Muftwang against dumping zoning of political offices, saying it is capable of jeopardising the peace of the state.
In a statement signed by its coordinator, Solomon Zet, the group said Muftwang would have stood no chance of becoming the governor if there was no zoning and urged him to be fair to all by retaining the zoning arrangement and giving the Southern zone their fair share to be speaker.
The group claimed that the governor is insisting that the speaker on of the State House of Assembly must come from the central zone and is allegedly encouraging the current speaker, Gabriel Dewan to continue in office.
“Dewan was hurriedly picked as speaker in November under an emergency arrangement that saw the governor’s party, the PDP, losing 16 of its members which made it slide into a minority party in the House. Fearing that the APC may take majority seats in the House as an appeal court judgment had declared candidates of the party the rightful winners of the elections, the remaining eight members of the House elected Dewan of the Young Peoples Party (YPP) as speaker. Since then, the speaker has refused to reconvene the House so as to avoid inaugurating the 16 APC members-elect who have been declared by the court.
“Under previous administrations and even before the appeal court judgment which sacked the 16 PDP members, the three senatorial zones share the top most political positions in the state such that when a particular zone occupied the governorship position and another, the deputy governor, the zone that had neither of the two takes the speakership.
“Under Joshua Dariye, the speaker position has always been zoned to the southern as Dariye hails from the central while his deputy, Michael Botmang is from the northern zone. The same zoning arrangement was respected and preserved under the administration of Jonah Jang with the central taking the speakership as his deputy, Pauline Tallen and later Ignatius Longjan were from the south. Under Simon Lalong, the speaker position went to the north as the governor hailed from the south and his deputy, Soni Tyoden, from the central. It is this time tested arrangement that ensured peace, stability and fairness.
“But Muftwang’s insistence on having the central zone retain the position of the speaker while denying the southern zone its fair share of political position is a direct confrontation to the southern zone and many have vowed to resist the imposition and nepotism. This anomaly is already creating tension as the southern zone is completely isolated,” the group said.
Also, youths in the state under the auspices of the Banner for Justice and Transparency released a statement signed by the group’s spokesman, Bulus Nankpa, urging the governor to keep the speakership seat in the Southern zone, saying that the north and central zones have been adequately taken care of in the current arrangement.