16 Plateau APC ‘Lawmakers’ Cry Out Over Non-inauguration

The yet-to-be sworn-in 16 All Progressives Congress (APC) members elected into the Plateau State House of Assembly have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to intervene in their predicament, following refusal of the speaker, Hon Gabriel Dewan, to abide by the final decision of the Court of Appeal to inaugurate them.

They equally called on the United Nations (UN), United States (US), European Union (EU), United Kingdom (UK) and all lovers of democracy all over the world to put pressure on concerned institutions to compel the speaker to promptly convene the Assembly that has been on recess for about five months and inaugurate them.

The aggrieved elected lawmakers, who stormed the APC national secretariat in Abuja, yesterday, told journalists after a closed-door meeting with the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) that their constituents were also pressuring them for lack of representation in the Plateau State government.

On behalf of his colleagues, Hon. Maiyaki Theodore Bala, said the intervention of President Tinubu becomes very important without further delay to avert any breakdown of law and order.

“We call on the President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, the Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the attorney-general of the federation… to order/direct the insidious and recalcitrant Speaker to promptly convene the Assembly that has been on recess for about 5 months and inaugurate us the 16 legitimate members of the Plateau State House of Assembly returned by INEC without further delay to avert any breakdown of Law and order.

“May we also call on all our traditional rulers, the clergy, community leaders, leaders of thought, civil society organisations, pressure groups, community, and ethnic associations, true friends of democracy, NBA, lawyers, human rights activists, and all well-meaning Nigerians to urgently rise to the occasion by putting pressure on the insidious and recalcitrant Speaker…to inaugurate us without further delay to avert any breakdown of Law and order.

“We call on the Conference of Speakers of State Houses of Assembly and the Conference of Former Speakers of State Houses of Assembly to save the state from descending to the precipice and state of anarchy by bringing to bear your regime of influence and authority to compel a return to true democracy on the Plateau.

“The present status quo is odious, reprehensible, condemnable, and requires urgent intervention. The good people of Plateau State look up to you to rescue us from the current imbroglio,” he added.