October 04, (THEWILL) – As the residents of Plateau State look forward to the Local Government Council Election, which is scheduled to hold on October 9, 2021, UKANDI ODEY previews a walk-over scenario orchestrated by the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission and the All Progressives Congress-led government of Governor Simon Lalong
History is about to repeat itself. This time, it is flavoured with politics of exclusion and extreme exhibition of winner-takes-all greed, as the local government council election in Plateau State comes up on October 9, 2021.
After several postponements, the first LG council election conducted by the Simon Lalong administration was held on October 10, 2018. The same election went into the history books as the most controversial and disputed. Four local government areas were excluded and denied on the strength of a contrived ‘security report.’
Even the worse for it, the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) announced results for the other 13 local government areas, while voting was still going on in voting centres across the state. The mischief and underhand tactics were completed with a nocturnal swearing-in ceremony held in the dead of night at Government House, Rayfield, on the same day.
For next Saturday’s elections, the trajectory, convoluted and rich in political land mines and intrigues against the opposition parties, has been reviewed and skewed to favour the ruling All Progressives Congress. The stage is now set to declare the party winner of the election in all the local government areas, except Langtang North where the tenure of the chairman, who was declared winner at the Tribunal, is yet to run full circle.
With the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)as the main opposition, and veritably a political force to contend with in the state, PLASIEC earlier declared that the opposition party will not be participating in Saturday’s elections, citing a court judgment of December 20, 2020, which nullified its congresses and ordered fresh congresses to be conducted to elect its state working committee.
In suit number PLD/J250/2021, the PDP engaged PLASIEC in a legal battle in which it prayed the Court to determine, among other things, whether the commission, “in view of the provisions of sections 40, 197, 221, and 222 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), sections 8 and 16 of the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission Law, 2016, Paragraph 2a, and the Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission Guidelines for 2021 Local Government Elections, the PDP as a registered political party in Nigeria does not have the constitutional right to and is not entitled to hold primaries to nominate candidates to obtain nomination forms from the defendant to participate and canvass for votes, present and sponsor its candidates in any election, and in particular the election into the various seats of chairman and councillors of all the local government areas in Plateau State”.
Giving judgment on the matter last Wednesday, Justice Ishaku Kunda, refused to grant the orders and declarations sought by the PDP, as he posited that the PLASIEC was right to exclude the party because, based on the letters and spirit of judgment Justice SP Gang of a court of coordinate jurisdiction dated November 20, 2020, the party had not conducted fresh primaries and the plea of the party being run by a caretaker committee could not be sustained.
According to Justice Kunda, all the steps and actions taken by the PDP Caretaker Committee, including the conduct of the primary election to determine the candidates for the local government election, were null and void. To that extent, he said “the entire claims in the submission of the claimant are hereby dismissed”.
Although the judgment has been faulted by many as it has been described variously in a lot of places as a travesty of justice, a fumbling judgment and a judicial charade, it has had severe implications on the mood and mode of the people of the state as the countdown thins towards October 9.
Reacting to the judgment, the PDP in Plateau, in a statement by its publicity secretary, John Akans, expressed shock, noting that “it was disappointing as we watched Justice Kunda deliver a most ridiculous judgment in the history of the Nigerian judiciary.”
The PDP further said, “It is obvious that this judgment has unveiled the government as a true enemy of the people.”
Many believe Governor Lalong, troubled by the bourgeoning popularity and acceptability of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state and a purported security report that the people of Plateau have become disdainful of the APC, especially with the increased insecurity, hunger and hardship in the land, used the PLASIEC to factor into seeming internal crisis in the main opposition party and manipulate it out to make the polls easier for the APC. But the ouster of the PDP from the local polls prefacing 2023 and the outrage that has greeted the judgment are being viewed by many as a huge insecurity threat that may explode and throw the entire state into another round of sectarian violence and crises. It is being argued that the substance of the development is that it has, beyond the PDP membership, disenfranchised thousands of voters who are willing to determine the leadership of their councils by expressing their will on the PDP platform.
In Jos South, Barkin Ladi and Ryom Local Government Areas, where there has been no election since Lalong came to power, political pundits say there is no chance of the APC winning an election in any of these places because the Berom ethnic group, who are the inhabitants of these areas are enthusiastic PDP faithful. With the judgment against the PDP, its opposition and platform have been effectively neutralised to enable Lalong foist APC political leadership on the people. It is feared that what the governor has conceived to do here is to turn the people against themselves and revenge his claim and anger that they did not vote for him in the 2015 and 2019 general elections.
The situation in Langtang North Local Government Area presents another potential for crisis as the APC and Lalong appear desperate invoke constitutional abuse to enable the party forcefully take over political control of the place. The present chairman, Johua Laven Ubandoma of the PDP, was declared winner by the local government election tribunal and sworn to serve a three-year term more than a year after the 2018 council election.
From discernible moves, Governor Lalong is festering trouble in the area, using the forthcoming elections, as he has endorsed his commissioner for housing to resign and contest the council’s chairmanship seat on the platform of the APC. With last week’s judgment against the PDP, it is yet to be seen how Lalong will circumvent constitutionality and constitutional order and remove PDP’s Ubandoma and inaugurate an APC council.
The curfew that was imposed in parts of the state, particularly in Jos North, Jos South and Bassa LGAs, is still in place as the return of peace is still suspect, with the latest reports of neighbourhood ambush and killings in Bassa LGA.
As the University of Jos remains closed, there is no news yet about the return of students who were hurriedly evacuated from the state in the wake of killings that gripped the state capital and its environs, in which even travelers were reportedly killed in a massive attack.
Two weeks ago, the Plateau State Polytechnic was embroiled in a crisis leading to a disputed number of deaths of students, to the effect that the school had all its campuses closed down and overdue semester examinations deferred indefinitely, just as leisure and hospitality businesses are at an all-time low.
There is apprehension around the state about concluded plans to rig the elections. Most of the political parties represented in the State merely have nominal presence and thy are too weak to win even a councilorship seat. For this obvious reason, they are only alive in the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) and did not field candidates for the local government polls. Thus, vaulted ambition of the APC under Lalong to take over political leadership at the grassroots, the infighting and internal contradictions that infested the PDP in Plateau State and the judicial system that thrives whimsically on technicalities rather than substance, have conspired to misrepresent the political picture of Plateau with a high propensity to trigger crises if not properly managed.
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