13 years after, Lalong conducts LG poll in Jos North

How PDP crisis paved way for APC to sweep polls Many didn’t believe that the just concluded local government elections would end peacefully in Jos North, the capital of Plateau State. For the past 13 years, LG elections didn’t take place in Jos North due to its volatile nature.  Even in recent times, there were […]

• How PDP crisis paved way for APC to sweep polls

Many didn’t believe that the just concluded local government elections would end peacefully in Jos North, the capital of Plateau State. For the past 13 years, LG elections didn’t take place in Jos North due to its volatile nature. 

Even in recent times, there were killings in some parts of the state following the attack and killing of Fulani travellers at Gada-Biyu and the subsequent attack on Yelwan Zagam, all in Jos North LGA leading to the killing of many people, which observers said would affect the scheduled LG polls in the area. 

The hitherto peaceful Tin City of Jos had witnessed series of ethno-religious crises which, over the past two decades, witnessed gruesome killings and mass destruction of properties.

Previous governments of Chief Joshua Dariye and Jonah David Jang (a retired air commodore) always cited insecurity as the reason for not conducting LG elections in Jos North and appointing caretaker chairmen to manage the affairs of the LGC.

The last election held in Jos North, before the just concluded one, was conducted by then governor Jang in 2008. The exercise resulted in ethno-religious violence that claimed hundreds of lives and the destruction of properties worth billions of naira following alleged manipulation of the exercise by the state government and Plateau State Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC).

The 2008 Jos crisis that followed the election in the LGA further created mistrust and divided Plateau State residents along ethnic and religious lines and since then, no election has been conducted until the October 9 poll by Governor Lalong. 

Lalong made bold to say that the state has recovered from the wounds of the series of violent conflicts inflicted on it and conducted the exercise across all the 17 LGAs including the Jos North.

Our correspondent who witnessed the exercise reports that though there was low turnout of voters and alleged irregularities in the process, the election was very peaceful with no report of violence from any of the LGAs.

It was a surprising development considering the concerns about what could erupt during the exercise. Before the exercise, there were reports of threats and calls by different individuals and groups for and against the conduct of the election. 

Press releases were also distributed by groups calling on the state government not to hold the election for varied reasons. But despite all these, the state government remained adamant, ignored all threats and calls to the contrary and conducted the exercise.

Two days to the election, Governor Lalong in what seemed to be a response to the many threats making the rounds, and to give confidence to the electorate, in a statewide broadcast, warned trouble makers to jettison any plan to cause trouble during the exercise as the government would not tolerate any form of violence in the state.

He said: “Those who are bent on causing trouble with a view to disrupting the process or causing pain on the people should be warned to shelve the idea because they will not be allowed to succeed. 

“Government has directed security agencies to deal decisively with anyone who threatens the lives and properties of law-abiding citizens using this election as a cover.” 

ASP Ubah Gabriel, the spokesman of the State Police command told Daily Trust that peaceful conduct of the election was connected to the adequate security personnel the command deployed during the exercise.

 He said: “We had good security architecture on the ground. Our men and officers were deployed to strategic areas to ensure violence-free exercise. So, these arrangements helped a lot.”

Malam Nura Alhassan, chairman of Jos Peace Vanguard (JPV), said close to the election, they engaged youths on several occasions on the need to remain peaceful before, during and after the elections. 

He said: “Looking at how social media is being used to create tension, we called on youth shy away from sending and sharing inciting messages. We also told them not to respond to whoever was seeking to generate trouble. 

“Apart from that, as chairman of JPC, I communicated severally with some Christian youth leaders from other areas on the need to live peacefully with one another and to propagate the words of peace during the exercise. These helped in dousing tension during the exercise.” 

For Azi Aware Peter, the peaceful conduct of the exercise could be connected to many reasons. He said the people of Jos North were tired of spelling blood on LG elections that didn’t even have a direct impact on them.

He also said the regular campaign of peace by the Plateau Peace Building Agency (PPBA) contributed to the smooth conduct of the exercise. 

How PDP crisis paved way for APC to sweep polls

On October 10, PLASIEC declared all chairmanship and councillorship candidates of the APC as winners of the Saturday elections in the 17 LGAs of the state.

PDP, the main opposition party in the state, was excluded from participating in the poll following a court order barring it.

Clearly, if PDP had participated in the election, it would have given the ruling APC a tough time, especially in LGAs of Jos South, Riyom, Bassa, Barkin Ladi and Langtang North.

Before the date of the election was announced, there was serious internal crisis rocking the state PDP with some of its stakeholders disagreeing over certain decisions.

The PDP crisis began when the party had a state congress supported by former governor Jang, in August last year, a development that some members of the party were not happy with. 

The aggrieved members alleged that Jang and his associates published names of delegates loyal to him to elect party officials during the congress.

Hon. Bitrus Kaze, a former House of Reps member and stakeholder in the PDP in the state challenged the conduct of the congress at the State High Court, saying the exercise was illegal and therefore be annulled. 

In his ruling, the presiding judge, Justice S. P. Gang, having heard all parties, ruled that the congress was illegal and thereby declared it null and void.

But despite the court order nullifying the congress, the already elected party executives went ahead and conducted the primaries to select candidates to represent the party in the LG elections.

Hon. Kaze, however, petitioned PLASIEC, saying PDP had no executive and therefore the conducted primaries were illegal since there was a court order annulling the earlier congress by the party which produced the candidates.

Consequently, PLASIEC refused to accept all candidates presented by the party, based on the petition by Kaze. But the PDP challenged PLASIEC’s decision at the State High Court where the presiding judge, Justice Isyaku Yakubu Kunda, dismissed the suit, saying the party would not participate in the election for its failure to hold congresses and constitute executives as ordered by an earlier judgment of the State High Court delivered on November 20, 2020.

Thereafter, PDP went to the Court of Appeal in Jos, a day to the election, seeking for accelerated hearing and stoppage of the exercise by PLASIEC until the main appeal was heard. 

The three Justices having granted the accelerated hearing, however, said they could not stop the conduct of the election based on the fact that election was a process and the process had gone far, coupled with the fact that the Supreme Court frowns at courts delaying elections in the LGAs.