Plateau Speaker Swears In Nine APC Lawmakers

The Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Gabriel Dewan, has officially inaugurated nine out of the 16 lawmakers on the All Progressives Congress (APC) platform.

Naija News reports that the swearing-in ceremony took place early Friday morning in Jos, the state capital.

One of the members from Jos East was selected to serve as the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly.

Dewan reportedly defended the inauguration by citing a letter he received as the source of authority.

The Court of Appeal’s decision to disqualify the 16 PDP members resulted in the new lawmakers being declared as winners.

The Speaker had previously mentioned that he was instructed by the court not to administer the oath of office to the affected members until the lawsuit filed by the ousted PDP lawmakers was resolved.

However, it was later reported that Speaker Dewan swore in the nine members at the Old Government House, which is currently serving as the temporary venue for the House’s legislative proceedings.

The house did not explain why the remaining seven members were not administered the oath of office.

Nevertheless, insiders revealed that the members were compelled to step down prior to their inauguration, whereas the remaining seven had chosen not to resign.

Daily Trust quoted the sources to have stated that the newly elected legislators took the oath with the understanding that they would eventually resign, should they act in violation of the stipulated conditions. Failure to comply would result in their removal from office.

Emergence Of Ganduje As APC National Chairman Violates Constitution – Lukman

Meanwhile, a former national vice chairman, North West of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Salihu Mohammed Lukman, has said that the distribution of leadership positions within the party is grossly unbalanced.

The party chieftain maintained that having Abdullahi Ganduje as the party’s national chairman is a violation of the APC constitution.

According to him, the North Central zone is being sidelined in the leadership positions of the party.

Lukman said that to correct the constitutional abnormality, the Deputy Senator President position should be given to the North Central and taken from Kano in the North West, where the current holder of the position, Senator Barau Jubrin, hails from.

He made his view known in a letter dated April 2, 2024, addressed to the party’s national chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, which was made available to newsmen on Wednesday.

In his words, “It is my hope that everything will be done to speed up restoring Constitutional order in APC. It is also my hope that meetings of the party’s organs, especially the NEC, will take place very soon. The meetings will review the situation facing the party and address the challenges, including rectifying the issue whereby the country’s leadership is skewed against the people of North Central.

“It is unacceptable that a party envisioned as progressive will produce unbalanced leadership for the country. It is objectionable that an envisioned progressive party will discriminate against members simply because they are critical of leaders’ initiatives or lack of them.

“Be that as it may, we will continue to make our modest contributions to party development. We will remain defiant of all discrimination against party members, in every form.

“Specifically, I recommended that the position of Deputy Senate President, currently being held by Senator Barau Jibrin, who is from Kano State, where you come from, should be relinquished to someone from North Central. There is no reason why the North West should hold three key leadership positions of National Chairman of APC, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Deputy Senate President when North Central is completely shut out. If any of the three positions are to be sacrificed, the position of Deputy Senate President currently being held by Sen. Barau, who is from Kano State, where the National Chairman come from, should be the one to be sacrificed.”