- Nine guber candidates sign peace pact
Seriki Adinoyi in Jos
Plateau State Governor, Simon Bako Lalong has reacted to the comment attributed to the immediate past governor of the state, Senator Jonah Jang, where he alleged that he governs the state from Abuja.
This is coming as nine gubernatorial candidates in the state have signed a peace pact towards peaceful election, even as Lalong has tasked politicians to refrain from Utterances and acts that are capable of heating up the process.
Jang had said during a campaign rally for Jeremiah Useni governorship candidature that he did not build the Government House at Little Rayfield for Lalong to occupy.
But reacting, through his Commissioner of Information, Yakubu Dati, who described the rally as “poorly attended”, Lalong added that “it is unfortunate that Jang could face the people of Plateau State and make claims to good governance when his tenure as governor has been one of the worst in the history of Plateau State.”
Dati also said, “It was rude of Jang who has been charged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for the theft of Plateau State’s money to talk down on the same people he had caused untold hardship and suffering to through the harsh policies of his administration, which recognised only family and friends and to remind them of the arrogant and divisive manner he had governed the state with.”
He said he had expected Jang to be contrite and show remorse for the damage he had done to the state and to hide his face in shame for allegedly failing to live up to the promise he made before he became governo.
But describing Dati’s reaction as a rant, Media consultant to Jang, Mr. Clinton Garuba, pitied him for struggling to manage a drowning governor that has been rejected by the people of the state.
He said, “Yakubu Dati and his apologists can go to town with any story they fabricate against Senator Jonah Jang, but it will have no effect, and cannot erase the magnificent achievements of the Senator while he was governor.
“Today, the cars Dati’s principal and indeed the APC administration in Plateau State drive were bought by Jonah Jang. Most of the roads he plies in the state capital and on the way to his village were constructed by Senator Jonah Jang. The office he works in and the government house he sleeps in on the few nights he spends in the state were built by Senator Jonah Jang. What more does Dati want?
He added that, “One thing Yakubu Dati sought to achieve is misleading the people to think that Senator Jonah Jang has any reason to lose sleep over the trumped up charges their government and the EFCC brought against him. Unfortunately, he failed lugubriously trying to make a mountain out of a molehill. EFCC is bemoaning their fate in court and so is Dati and his boss having endured the most painful and agonising traumas of their lives when their own witnesses testified against them.
Clinton queried: “Where is the peace that Lalong boast about? Perhaps it is a figment of their imagination. From New Year Day till date, a little over a week ago, we have lost 20 precious lives in the state. Is that the peace Plateau people desire, the type that reduces them to internally displace persons, IDP?”
Meanwhile, nnine gubernatorial candidates in the state have signed a peace pact towards peaceful election, even as Lalong has tasked politicians to refrain from Utterances and acts that are capable of heating up the process.
In his goodwill message at the interactive session organised by the Dialogue, Reconciliation and Peace (DREP) Center in the state, Lalong who is the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) enjoined politicians to be tolerant and accommodate one another and desist from any act or Utterances that could cause disunity among the people.
