By Isreal Adamu, Jos
A group, Plateau Youths United for Justice said it has uncovered plans by a group, Occupy Plateau Conveners, who are been sponsored by some opposition parties to throw the State into chaos by embarking on violence protest.
In a statement signed by Williams Larry, the group alleged that huge sums of money had been earmarked for chaos.
The conveners of the Occupy Plateau Campaigns (OPC), recently in a press conference said there’s loooming anarchy on the Plateau with the situation of things at the Plateau State House of Assembly
They accused the Speaker of the state assembly Hon. Gabriel Dewan Kutdangbena, of refusing to swear in the 16 APC lawmakers who won their cases at the Court of Appeal .
Responding,the Plateau Youths United for Justice said ” Information at our disposal revealed that the Conveners of the Occupy Plateau Campaigns and their loyalists are planning to cause crisis in the state in the guise of violent protests to make the state look unsafe.”
They alleged that “We have it on good authority that they have started recruiting thugs from two local government councils who will be used to disturb the peace of the state.”
“We hereby urge the Occupy Plateau Group to abide by the decision of the court as some court injunctions not Speaker Dewan is stopping the swearing in of the 16 APC lawmakers .
They added that ” It could be also recalled that the Plateau state House of assembly had adjourned around November last year to January before the Court of Appeal ruling ,and then the House was to reconvene on the 23rd of January. “
“A few days before that day, two injunctions were served on the Speaker, one by the Labour Party aspirants also in the same race for the same House of Assembly.”
” Many people didn’t know that even before the elections, the 13 LP aspirants representing 13 constituencies had obtained an injunction because their logo was omitted during the elections.”
“There were many elections that were cancelled as a result of the omission of the logo.”
” So, the Court of Appeal gave judgment in favour of those people, saying that INEC should include them in the election. INEC did not comply.”
” These people followed it up. Suddenly, those people who were pursuing their litigation got an injunction restraining the House due to the non-compliance of INEC with the court judgment in respect to the Labour Party’s case. “
” That restrained the speaker from swearing in anyone. In fact, it’s not just the injunction. There’s another by a civil society organization in the state. So, the Speaker read out the two injunctions to the public. You can’t go against such an injunction. If they vacate this injunction, they will definitely be sworn in, which means that the ball is in the court of the courts of law.”
“For now the Court has ordered the Speaker to recognise only 8 lawmakers”
The group also passed a vote of confidence on the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Rt Hon Gabriel Dewan.
They said that “Rt. Hon. Gabriel Dewan has actually showed what effective leadership is with his strides so far in the Plateau House of Assembly since his emergence as Speaker in November 2023 as the sate Assembly is for the first time in a very long while, working with the executive in a bid to provide quality representation and allow the good people of Plateau State enjoy true dividends of democracy.
The statement also urged the occupy Plateau group to discard the option of violence in the process of ventilating his grievances, saying they should wait for the decision of the court.
“it is time for us to work and build a new Plateau State where opportunities abound for development and prosperity” they added .
