The Plateau State House of Assembly on
Thursday witnessed a rowdy session as members of the Peoples Democratic
Party protested the extension of the tenure of the transition chairmen
of the 17 local government areas of the state.
Governor Simon Lalong had written a
letter to the lawmakers, requesting that the tenure of the local
government transition chairmen be extended by six months, instead of the
original two months.
The chairmen were appointed following the sacking of the chairmen who were elected into office by former governor Jonah Jang.
But the 10 PDP members, led by the
Deputy Speaker, Mr. Yusuf Gagdi, protested the move, saying that it was
against the agreement reached with the lawmakers when the chairmen were
elected last year. He said that the chairmen’s tenure had been extended
by two months in the former exercise since they were appointed earlier
this year.
At the plenary on Thursday, the Speaker,
Mr. Peter Azi, after reading the communication from Lalong, said that
the governor had reasoned that the extension of the tenure of the
management committees’ chairmen of the 17 LGC to six months would make
for stability and allow them to be focused.
He said that the governor had also said
that the six-month extension would enable the government to put some
necessary machinery in place for a conducive conduct of local government
election in the state.
The contributions, however, turned rowdy
as all the 10 PDP members vehemently kicked against the extension by
six months and insisted that based on the earlier agreement, it should
be extended by just two months and also subject to the performance of
the chairmen in the past months.
In his contributions, Gagdi,
representing Kantana Constituency on the platform of the PDP, disclosed
that the House was in the receipt of 11 petitions against the management
committees’ chairmen, adding that if they were doing well, there would
be no petitions against them.
He pointed out that the allegations
consisted of massive corruption levelled against the chairmen, stressing
that their tenure should not be extended more than two month.
But his position was countered by the
Member representing Jos North, North Constituency under the All
Progressives Congress, Mr. Ibrahim Baba Hassan, who urged the House to
consider the six months tenure extension to pave the way for proper
planning of local government polls in the state.
As the Speaker was about to subject the
motion to a vote, the 10 PDP lawmakers walked out of the chamber in
protest while the 14 APC members voted in support of the six months.
All efforts to persuade them failed.
Speaking to newsmen, Gagdi described the
action of the APC lawmakers as unconstitutional, as they did not form
two-third majority as stipulated by the constitution.
0 comments:
Post a Comment