*Lalong: Allegations diversionary
By Seriki Adinoyi in Jos
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Plateau State has described Governor Simon Lalong’s ‘Rescue Government’ as nothing but one which has only rescued the personal pocket of the Governor and those of his families and friends.
“Rather than quickly settling down to work for the good people of Plateau, they chose to create unnecessary distraction by constantly engaging in whipping up sentiments and controversy,” it said.
But the Governor has, through his Media Aide, Mr Mark Longyel, described the allegations as diversionary.
Addressing the press in Jos, state Chairman of PDP, Chief Damishi Sango, observed that it was clear that Lalong and his All Progressives Party (APC) were not prepared for governance both at the state and national levels.
He said Lalong “was so flabbergasted by the unparalleled achievement of the PDP government that he experienced “performance paralysis”.
In other words, Sango said, the APC government in the State did not know where, and how to start working on its own programme. He contended that the only option it had was to start a needless and empty controversy over what was done, or what was not handed over to it in order to buy time.
“Then, rather than drawing the attention of the people to what projects they were executing for their good, they went on a spending spree – wasting billions of Naira on uncontrolled purchase of exotic cars for personal use, and for cabinet appointees – when names were nowhere near being submitted for appointment at that time.
He said that after one year in office, “the lives of our precious Plateau citizens are still sadly crippled by the manacles of corruption, segregation and chains of tribal and political discrimination by the APC government in Plateau. Today, our people are living on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of vast federal allocation and internally generated revenue.
“We make bold to say that the state government received over N97 Billion as revenue in the past one year, yet these sums were not utilised toward alleviating the suffering of the people. More than one year gone, and the people are still languishing in the corner of APC’s mismanagement. We therefore have no hesitation in exposing the deep-seated corruptive tendencies of this government.”
