By Golok Nanmwa, Jos
Group of Youths operating under the aegis of the Plateau Youths for quality and Good Governance (PYFQAGG ) on Tuesday said the Courts not the Speaker of the Plateau House of assembly Hon Gabriel Dewan, is stopping the swearing in of 16 Lawmakers who got their victory from the Court of Appeal.
The group with membership in the 17 local government councils of Plateau state made this known in a statement signed by Hon Titus Ajang, its spokesman and made available to newsmen in Jos.
“Mr Speaker we the Youths of Plateau are solidly behind you, we appeal that you should not be distracted by trolls and critics who do not wish well for the state. ”
The group members also took a swipe on the conveners of the Occupy Plateau Campaigns (OPC) for accusing Speaker Dewan of refusing to swear in the 16 lawmakers.
They said “We are calling on the Conveners of the Occupy Plateau Campaigns to apologize to the Speaker of the Plateau House of assembly, Rt Hon Gabriel Dewan.”
According to the group, “The Speaker of the Plateau House of assembly Hon Gabriel Dewan is a Democrat who is well respected.”
” Democracy is about due process, and the Speaker is committed to this.”
“Yes we agree that the Court of Appeal had late last year given judgment in favour of the APC lawmakers that they should be sworn in against the 16 PDP lawmakers that they should be sacked.”
“It could be also recalled that before then, the House had adjourned around November to January, so the House was to reconvene on the 23rd of January. ”
“A few days before that day, two injunctions were served on the Speaker, one by the Labour Party aspirants also in the same race for the same House of Assembly.”
“Many people didn’t know that even before the elections, the 13 LP aspirants representing 13 constituencies had obtained an injunction because their logo was omitted during the elections.”
“There were many elections that were cancelled as a result of the omission of the logo.”
“So, the Court of Appeal gave judgment in favour of those people, saying that INEC should include them in the election. INEC did not comply.”
“These people followed it up. Suddenly, those people who were pursuing their litigation got an injunction restraining the House due to the non-compliance of INEC with the court judgment in respect to the Labour Party’s case.”
“That restrained the speaker from swearing in anyone. In fact, it’s not just the injunction. There’s another by a civil society organization in the state. So, the Speaker read out the two injunctions to the public. You can’t go against such an injunction. If they vacate this injunction, they will definitely be sworn in, which means that the ball is in the court of the courts of law.”
“For now the Court has ordered the Speaker to recognise only 8 lawmakers.”
As a group we are again passing a vote of confidence on the Speaker of the state assembly Gabriel Dewan.
According to the group, “We want to commend the Speaker for displaying outstanding leadership since he took over the mantle of the Plateau State House of assembly.”
“We have followed the leadership of the 10th Plateau Assembly and we must commend Rt Hon Gabriel Dewan for making giant strides in a short while.”
Describing the Speaker as a born leader, the group added that he embodies charisma, loyalty, and humility.
We call on the Speaker to remain focused on delivering the dividends of democracy to the people through quality legislative framework.
