Plateau PDP chairman commends members over peaceful ward congresses

The Chairman of the Plateau chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Gwots Chocho, has commended members of the party for their peaceful conduct during the recent ward congresses and the appeals. Chocho made the commendation in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Jos.

He said that there was no serious concern about breach of peace during the exercise in any part of the state as the party members were exemplary in their conduct. “Let me appreciate the people of Plateau and the security agencies that were saddled with the responsibility of taking charge of the security apparatus. “I also want to appreciate the People’s Democratic Party officials from the national, state and local government levels. “We must appreciate God that it went smoothly in spite of some little challenges as it were, but in a normal scale of assessment, we will say that the congresses were peaceful and successful,” he said. The chairman said that nobody believed that the congresses would be peaceful as many people expected that there would be war. He also commended the exemplary leadership of  Prof. Maxwell Gidado (SAN) who led the Electoral Committee that conducted the congresses successfully. According to him, there were two ways of election; consensus and voting. “If you are not accepting that of consensus, the guidelines and law say go in and vote . “Queue up and whoever wins becomes the winner, that is what we are following and by the grace of God most of the local governments have gone through consensus for us to avoid acrimony and crises. “Yes, all of them had made almost the same statement, they are assuring us that the party has come to stay and will not be tolerating crisis because we have suffered a lot in Plateau,” he said. Chocho said that the party’s leadership did not interfere or support anybody during the congresses in order to allow the will of the people to prevail. He said that as the chairman of the party, he did not go to his ward or local government during the exercise to avoid any claims that he was there to interfere with the process. He said that the party had set up an appeal panel for those who might not be satisfied with the outcome of the congresses. The chairman said  that those who were aggrieved by the conduct of the exercise were advised to channel their concerns to the panel. He added that like the congresses, the appeal panel successfully considered the petitions from those that were dissatisfied with the process. (NAN)