Stop hiding under insecurity, conduct LG polls – PDP tells Lalong

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has accused Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state of using insecurity as an excuse to prevent local government elections from holding in four local government areas in the state.

Aggrieved chairmanship and councillorship candidates of the PDP threw the challenge in Jos on Monday, following the exclusion of their zones in the council polls conducted on October 10, 2018.

Chairman of the forum, Aminu Zang, said Gov. Lalong must have other reasons not to conduct the elections other than insecurity.

It would be recalled that the Plateau state Independent Electoral Commission (PLASIEC) had in the 2018 council polls excluded four council areas of Jos North, Jos South, Barkin Ladi and Riyom blaming insecurity as a factor.

However, political observers and the PDP have faulted the claim, saying that Gov. Lalong is afraid of losing election in those areas because the four local government areas are PDP strongholds.

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The opposition PDP has also argued that if the 2019 elections were held in the said troubled local governments, what is stopping the state electoral body from conducting the local government elections in the affected councils.

“We now have peace in the four local governments excluded from the 2018 polls, so what is stopping Lalong from conducting elections in the area. It is obvious that the governor is using insecurity as an excuse to stop the polls from holding.

“The setting up of interim management committees to manage our local governments is an aberration and should have no place in our democratic journey.

“Our people are disenfranchised and deprived of the equitable distribution of the dividends of democracy. The managers of the interim contraptions do not promise anything to anybody, hence, the seeming non-chalant and want of obligation to deliver,” chairman of the forum said.