Plateau Assembly’s Long Walk to Full-Fledged Capacity

Seriki Adinoyi, in this piece, chronicles the crisis that delayed the Plateau State House of Assembly’s attainment of full-fledged capacity 16 months after the 2023 general elections.

Plateau State House of Assembly finally had a full house when its Speaker, Rt. Hon. Gabriel Dewan recently sworn in the remaining five All Progressives Congress (APC) members of the Assembly into the House after eight months of waiting.

It has been a protracted legal logjam occasioned by the ruling of the Court of Appeal and the subsequent counter ruling by the Supreme Court in a similar court case.

Responding to the recent swearing in, Acting State Publicity Secretary of APC, Mr. Shittu Bamayi berated the speaker of the House saying, “The Speaker of the Plateau House of Assembly, Gabriel Dewan, has climbed down his high horse by swearing in the remaining five members of the House.

“For nearly eight months, the Speaker and his benefactor, in a fascist and autocratic manner, deprived the constituencies of the just sworn-in members their constitutional rights because of some self-serving interests.

“Dewan had boisterously, at any given opportunity, bragged about his ill-conceived, retrogressive and oppressive instincts in sacrificing the constitutional rights of thousands of people of the state on the altar of the selfish aggrandisement of a few.

“He has unfortunately been carried away by the ephemeral euphoria and the aura of the Office of Speaker to the extent that he places the interest of his benefactor above any other consideration and the constitution. With the swearing-in of the remaining (APC) members, it is now a full House, with all the compliments of a legislature.

“A cursory look at the resume of the just sworn-in members shows evidence of endowments in character, values, experience, loyalty, and scholarship.

“For the first time in the political trajectory of Plateau State, the House of Assembly has in its membership a law professor and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in the person of Theodore Maiyaki, a one-time Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Sanda, and other men of honour and repute, like Owen Dakogot, Moses Davou Dantong, and Isaac Gyang Davou, who stood with their constituents in ensuring that the Constitution and the rule of law are respected.”

The 2023 poll had produced 24 members of the Assembly comprising 16 PDP Lawmakers, seven APC legislators, and one Young Progressive Party (YPP) member.

But the election petition tribunal sitting in the state sacked all the 16 PDP members of the House citing lack of valid structure in their party that produced them for the election. The tribunal ruled that APC members who came second in the state assembly election should be sworn in.

Disagreeing with the judgement of the tribunal, the lawmakers headed for the Court of Appeal, but the Appeal Court went ahead to uphold the judgement of the tribunal that sacked them.

But before the judgement of the Appeal Court, the PDP lawmakers had read the handwriting on the wall; and sensing that their sack may be affirmed by the Court of Appeal and not wanting the APC to take charge of the Assembly after their sack, quickly advised the then Speaker who was a member of the PDP to resign. The House, still dominated by the PDP then, quickly elected the only YPP member in the House, Hon Gabriel Dewan as the Speaker.

Dewan immediately suspended plenary and asked the House to proceed on recess to enable renovation of the Assembly Complex.

While on recess, the PDP lawmakers were eventually sacked by the Court of Appeal and their Certificate of Return withdrawn from them and given to the APC contestants in the elections. But then, the House was on recess and so they could not be sworn in by the Speaker. Dewan, working with the PDP lawmakers also ensured that the 2024 appropriation bill brought before the House was passed before they proceeded on the recess.

Every move to ensure that the Plateau Assembly reconvene to enable the APC lawmakers produced by the Court of Appeal to be sworn in failed as the renovation of the House lasted forever. The Speaker also said he was in receipt of a court order stopping him from swearing them in as members of the House.

Seeing that their swearing in was frustrated by the refusal of the House to reconvene and by the purported court order, the APC lawmakers and their party cried foul with their Certificates of Return in their hands. It was like seeing the Promise Land and being unable to enter as Dewan insisted that the recess continue for as long as the renovation lasted.

After some months, nine of the APC lawmakers were sworn in leaving five in April, 2024. The others that were not sworn-in alleged that the Speaker acting the scripts of the state Governor Caleb Mutfwang was coercing them to sign post-dated resignation letters as precondition for their inauguration, a development they reportedly rejected.

APC in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, condemned the alleged brazen act of Muftwang and Dewan as “utterly outrageous, and anti-democratic.”

The APC also described the act as illegal and a vile contempt of the binding judgement of the Court of Appeal that ordered the inauguration of all 16 APC members-elect as members of the House of Assembly.

“The attention of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been drawn to disturbing and unlawful acts of the Governor of Plateau State, His Excellency Caleb Muftwang, and the Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Gabriel Dewan, in relation to APC members of the House of Assembly ordered by the Court of Appeal to be inaugurated as members of the Plateau State House of Assembly.

“The Governor and the Speaker coerced and illegally procured APC lawmakers to sign post-dated resignation letters as a pre-condition for their inauguration as members of the Plateau State House of Assembly.

“Nine lawmakers that succumbed to the intimidation and coercion, and signed the demanded post-dated resignation letters and verifying affidavits were inaugurated by the Speaker as members of the House of Assembly on April 5, 2024. 

“Seven members-elect that refused to submit to this illegality were denied inauguration by the Speaker.”

The APC wondered why Muftwang and Dewan were unwilling and seemingly terrified to comply with a valid judgment of the Court of Appeal but would rather resort to illegal and underhand tactics to intimidate, blackmail and cajole members to sign post-dated resignation letters in violation of the laws of our land.

The party stressed that the continued refusal of the Speaker to inaugurate the remaining seven APC members, who have stoutly refused to submit to this illegality has become a clear and present threat to the peace and stability of the state.

The publicity secretary alleged that the constituents of yet-to-be inaugurated members are becoming increasingly restive and might resort to peacefully protesting the unlawful refusal to inaugurate their own elected representatives, saying it was avoidable and must be avoided.

The APC called on Dewan to unconditionally swear in the remaining seven APC lawmakers without further delay in line with the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

But the Speaker outrightly denied the allegation of coercion, noting that other lawmakers were proudly unwilling to submit themselves and their Certificate of Return for necessary due diligence before swearing in.

The state Governor also denied complicit, and pleaded to be excused from the travail of the Assembly.

It is not clear how two other lawmakers later nicodemously presented themselves to be sworn in.

However, the latest development that resulted in the recent swearing in of the remaining five lawmakers reportedly stemmed from renewed restiveness of the former Governor of the state, Simon Lalong, who together with other members of APC began to agitate and called on President Bola Tinubu to prevail on the Speaker of the House to do the right thing.