ACN WINS LEGAL BATTLE, AS JANG REINSTATES COUNCIL CHAIRMAN
Plateau State Governor, Dr. Jonah David Jang has ended the three-year legal battle between the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) candidate, Mohammed Zakari over Wase Council chairmanship seat.
The governor yesterday at Government House, Rayfield, swore in the ACN candidate as the elected council chairman of Wase Local Government Council after about three years legal battle.
The embattled ACN candidate, Mohammed Zakari, contested the 2008 LGA election in the state and won but the state electoral official (PLASIC) announced a PDP candidate as winner of the poll. The ACN candidate went to the LGA Election Petition Tribunal and won. The PDP appealed against the judgment but still lost to the ACN but government could not swear in the ACN candidate as substantive council chairman.
Swearing in the ACN candidate as Wase council chief executive, Jang commended the democratic character exhibited by the ACN candidate throughout the legal battle, saying, 'I also wish to commend your patience and respect for due process in pursuing this mandate. Congratulations.'
He urged the newly sworn-in council chairman not to hesitate in providing democratic dividends to his people, stressing that government had provided an enabling environment. The governor said, 'Mr. Chairman, you are coming in at a time the PDP government in the state is having attention to rural development, especially in the provision of infrastructure and other services.'
Governor Jang added that 'we have created the enabling environment for government at this level to be functional through the release of over N7.4 billion from the Paris Club debt relief and allowing them control of their allocation for development of their areas.'
Commenting exclusively to Daily Sun, state Chairman of the ACN, Amos Gizo, insisted that the newly sworn-in chairman must complete his three-year mandatory tenure as stipulated by Plateau State local government laws.
Reacting to rumours that council chairmen in the state would soon be leave office as their three-year tenure would elapse by November, the ACN chairman, said the party believed in the rule of law, that was why they patiently waited for the governor to swear in the chairman not resorting to violence.
The swearing of the Wase council chairman witness thousands of party supporters across the state.