Sen. Jonah Jang, a former governor of Plateau State, described the recent Appeal Court decisions that removed several MPs elected on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform from the National and State Assemblies as a massive miscarriage of justice.
Jang, who formerly represented Plateau North in the Senate, claimed that the Appellate Court’s decisions deprived the people of their legitimate representation.
According to Clusterchannel, certain PDP National and State Assembly members from Plateau State were recently removed from their legislative seats due to their party’s failure to follow a court order to hold lawful congresses in the state.
However, the state governor, Caleb Mutfwang, who was also elected on the PDP platform in the 2023 general election, was able to survive after the Supreme Court confirmed his election on Friday.
Jang, in a statement issued in Jos by his media consultant, Comrade Clinton Garuba, while reacting to Governor Mutfwang’s legal victory at the Supreme Court, said the government of Plateau State and the PDP had already petitioned the National Judicial Council (NJC) to review all the judgements involving the state that were delivered by the Court of Appeal, effectively stopping those who have been elected to the National and State Assemblies from representing.
Referring to those declared victors by the Appeal Court, Jang stated, “It has become an anomaly for them to remain as legislators when they were unable to win elections at the polls; this should not be allowed to continue.”
According to the former governor, the authorities must return to the people their true representatives and restore their mandate, and they will continue to support Governor Caleb Mutfwang’s government, which has accomplished in his first eight months in office what the previous administration under former Governor Simon Lalong could not in eight years.
Jang called on the good people of Plateau State to stand very united because they will come out strong at the end of the day, stressing that the governor’s victory at the Supreme Court was a victory for democracy and against the wishes of anti-democratic forces, recalling with sadness how anti-democratic forces tried as much as they could to manipulate the will of the people without success.
“We must thank the justices for upholding the Rule of Law thereby affirming the long-held belief that the judiciary is the last hope of the common man. We thank them for not allowing themselves to be manipulated because we are aware that the same forces of darkness, in their usual manner, had wanted to thwart the mandate of the people, plunge the state into disarray and set us years backwards.”
