Tag: Mutfwang

Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang has restate his confidence on the judiciary to give him justice and restore his mandate soon.

Mutfwang, who described his loss at the Appeal Court as a temporary setback, urged his supporters in the State to remain calm and optimistic of victory at the Apex Court.

Mutfwang stated this while addressing thousands of PDP loyalists and admirers at the Yakubu Gowon Airport on his arrival from Abuja. 

He said: “I want to also thank our friends across Nigeria and across the world who have stood with us.  They have shown interest in what is happening on the Plateau and I want to thank them very big thanks to all who have prayed with us and prayed for us.

” I want to assure you that we began this project with God on our side and I want to assure you that God is still with us.”

According to him: ” by His grace, Plateau people will smile. By His grace, Plateau people will rejoice. We fear no fault of anyone and we are confident in the judiciary despite all that has happened, we are confident in the judiciary. 

 “God who controls the hearts of men is going to ensure  that finally God  will bring joy to the people of Plateau State . Therefore, I urge all of us to remain steadfast in prayer. To remain steadfast, there is no need for any evil talk”. 

“We will not reply to those who mean evil to us. We will continue to encourage our people to remain calm and peaceful. This is our line. We will not allow anyone to destroy us. Therefore we must stay together as one family. 

” I am proud and excited that you have made me your leader. I am proud of all Plateau people. Of course the divides of same.”

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Mutfwang, who drove round Jos city to appreciate people of the State declared: ” I have seen elders, I have seen women, I have seen youth. And I said this is the Plateau direction we want to go. I therefore want just to remain united, to remain peaceful. Every journey, every journey from violence to freedom has its own kickoff. 

“There are many hurdles you must go, and whatever we have experienced so far is a temporary hurdle. And by the grace of God we will raise the promise life.”

The second civilian Governor of Plateau State Fidelis Tapgun has urged embattled Plateau Gov Caleb Mutfwang to shelve the idea of proceeding to the Supreme Court to upturn his sack by the Appeal Court. 

Tapgun, who is a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said it was needless dragging the case any further because it was a glaring case of lack of adherence to court order by the PDP.

The Nation  reported a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal sitting in Abuja sacked Mutfwang and declared All Progressives Congress (APC) Nentawe as winner of the 2023 governorship election on the ground that he  (Mutfwang) was not validly nominated as the PDP candidate

Nentawe proceeded to the appellate court after the Governorship and Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal in Jos upheld Mutfwang’s election.

While expressing his understanding of the judgement of the court of appeal to newsmen in his Jos residence, the PDP chieftain said: “As a politician, I completely align myself with the ruling of the appellate court, that as at the time Mutfwang was nominated as the candidate of the party, PDP had no structure as a result of internal wranglings that rocked the party and its inability to obey the judgment of Justice SP Gang of the Jos High Court, which asked the party to go and conduct a congress to elect a proper state executive council.

“And I feel it would amount to a waste of time and resources for anyone to drag this case any further, because the case has been won and lost”. 

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Tapgun described the fate that had befallen PDP in Plateau State as self-inflicted, saying “I personally warned the party long ago, that it would have a Zamfara scenario in it hands. 

“And so the best option at this moment for Gov Mutfwang to look at the new era coming and congratulate Nentawe for going through the process. It’s a difficult decision but we can’t do anything because we inflicted the wound on ourselves.”

Tapgun traced the genesis of the party’s problem to 2015 when it negated the zoning policy and chose a candidate from the northern zone where the then incumbent Governor came from.

According to him: “Really think this thing that has happened to us is self-inflicted. Self-inflicted because we caused everything that has happened. And when I say we, I am not saying everybody. There is one person that I want to single out in this State. He has been the fulcrum of all these problems we have been facing. 

“You know I thought he should have learnt a lesson in 2015 with the mistake he made in imposing a candidate from the northern zone against the zoning principles of zoning in the state.

“People voted against it and that’s why APC came into the political scene in the State. I thought that he should have learnt a lesson from it and rectified it. At that time we lost only one position; and that’s the governorship, now we are losing all.”

Tapgun said that he made spirited efforts to reconcile the two factions before the 2023 elections and even warned that the Zamfara scenario might play out in Plateau if they went into the election without a properly constituted exco.

He added that he sounded the same warning to Mutfwang when he (Mutfwang) came to his house after emerging  as the candidate of the party.

Tapgun said: “All along I have been working to ensure that we got it right. Mutfwang himself when he emerged as the candidate of the party, he came here (to his house).

” He said that he just came to tell me that people are saying that he’s somebody’s boy and all that. I said look, that’s not the issue but the issue is that you have emerged and are carrying the party’s flag. He said yes and I asked him as a party man whether he was aware of all the court cases that had been going on. He said he was aware and I asked him what he had done about them. 

“He said that since he emerged as the candidate he had organised lawyers and had looked at the cases. He said that he had even taken it to the national headquarters of the party where the National Legal Adviser, whom he said was his classmate in Zaria. 

“They said there was no problem. I asked him whether he was satisfied with that and he said yes. I said Okay. I told him if he was satisfied with that, I was not. I then told him he will not see me in any of his campaigns but assured him that he would not hear me campaigning against him as a party man and a member of BOT. I told him he would not see me in any of his activities because I wont be part of it.”

He advised the party members  to try and reinvent the soul of the party because it has been irretrievably lost.

Tapgun added: “PDP will have to go back to the drawing table but I am being sincere with you that it’s going to be a herculean task with anybody who’s going to be saddled with the task of reorganizing the party at national and state level. I am speaking from the bottom of my heart. PDP has lost its soul. The locust has eaten everything.”

Former governor of Plateau state and leader of PDP in Plateau state, Senator Jonah Jang, said he never advised the embattled governor of the state, Caleb Mutfwang to voluntarily hand over power to All Progressives Congress (APC).

Senator Jang was reacting to a news story on social media that claimed that he advised the incumbent PDP governor to resign.

In a statement issued in Jos on Thursday, November 23, by media consultant to the senator, Clinton Garuba, the ex-governor described the report as a fabricated story.

 The statement read: “Our attention has just been drawn to a publication purportedly issued by a certain Bulus Deme, who claims to be reporting for Vanguard Newspaper, where he alleged that Senator (Dr) Jonah David Jang advised Governor Caleb Mutfwang to resign, amongst other fabricated stories in what can be best described as daydreaming. Interestingly, the so-called Bulus Deme does not exist in the Vanguard newspaper staff list.

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“We initially wanted to ignore the publication, believing strongly that readers would easily pick holes in the story and disregard the falsehood being deliberately peddled, knowing the integrity of the former governor and his love for democracy and good governance, which has been the hallmark of Barrister Caleb Mutfwang government since assuming office on the 29th of May, 2023 but for the misleading statement and the fact that some gullible readers will mistake it for truth. To avoid doubt, the entire write-up is completely false and only exists in the writer’s imagination.

“We are not unaware of the devilish attempts to compromise the judiciary by forces of darkness who are bent on subverting the will of the Plateau people who freely voted for PDP in the last election and voted out the APC that spent eight years doing nothing in the interest of the plateau people but disparaged the very people they claimed to govern, shared our common patrimony amongst themselves, destroyed almost every good thing they inherited, almost made us second class citizens in our God-given land, it was indeed a complete wasted eight years.

Senator Jang stressed: “It is absurd that anyone would even imagine that Senator Jang would ever think of advising Governor Caleb Mutfwang, who is raising the bar of governance to a new level, to hand over to a group of vampires whom the people of Plateau have rejected.

“It goes without saying that APC is bent on taking power through the back door. We believe our God never sleep nor slumber and will not allow us to return to Egypt as a state and people. Asking a Government that has spent only six months in government and has already surpassed the achievement of Lalong’s APC-led eight years government to resign is unthinkable.

“Senator Jonah Jang, like other well-meaning lovers of democracy, is at a complete loss as to why the Appeal court took a decision that contradicts the 2023 electoral act and other decided cases by the Supreme Court. He believes that the judgment of Sunday, 18th November, is a total miscarriage of Justice, and as a firm believer in the judiciary, Senator Jang holds the belief that the highest court of the land will reverse this great injustice.

“While Senator Jang does not support disparaging their lordships, as observed in the protest that greeted the previous judgments, we all saw how difficult it was for the judges to justify their positions and how hard they tried to explain their actions due to public outcry.

The former governor called on the good people of Plateau State to remain peaceful and calm and channel their energies into praying to God. Yahweh will not fail us, and we trust in him alone.

The ongoing political strife between the ruling People Democratic Party (PDP) and the opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) in Plateau state has escalated, with the APC claiming that the ruling party is orchestrating a constitutional conflict within the state legislature.

The APC alleges that the PDP is intentionally plotting to foment internal strife among state Assembly members before the government is handed over to the APC.

In a statement signed by the state publicity secretary of APC, Hon Sylvanus Namang said: “In order to execute this toxic and ill-motivated script by the Governor, as soon as he was sworn-in yesterday, the “new speaker.

“From every indication, the governor is spoiling for a war with the very likely incoming APC-APC-led government as his action is clearly designed to operate a parallel legislature in the same manner he is operating an illegal Transmission Implementation Committee with appointed Chairmen who operate in guest houses and hotel rooms, thus flouting with impunity the Inspector General of Police directive ordering the reopening of LGA secretariats for the  17 elected Chairmen and 325 councilors to operate.

 “This onslaught and legislative impunity has put paid to the speculations about the grand design by Governor Mutfwang to stall the inauguration and swearing in of the new Members returned by the Court of Appeal, which is to be effected next week.

“It is instructive to note that going by the Appeal Court judgments, the APC would have an overwhelming majority of 22 Members out of 24 Members in the Plateau State House of Assembly while the YPP and Labour Party (LP) would have one member each.

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“This invidious move is a clear invitation to crises as by next week, in line with the Appeal Court judgments, all the 16 PDP members would cease to be members of the Plateau State House of Assembly.

“This, therefore, implies that the 22 APC Members are expected to operate under a one-man riot gang as “Speaker” for the two months because even when the House is on recess, legislative functions would take place under oversight functions.

He said: “It leaves us in no doubt that, as he has done in the case of the illegal TIC, he would continue to equally illegally operate with the sacked House of Assembly members in his remaining days in office.

“While we regard the Government-instigated action playing out at the Plateau State House of Assembly as a mere circus and theatrical show, we are compelled to once again advise Governor Caleb Mutfwang and his bedfellows to desist from truncating the tenets of democracy and to also make a detour from further overheating the polity for the sake of Plateau State.

“We have particularly noted with dismay, his misadventures sponsored and contemptuous protests, especially against the Judiciary over its landmark decisions on the petitions before it which have taken its toll on the finances of the state.”

APC therefore urged Gov Mutfwang to, in line with the oath of office he took, defend and protect the interest of the people of Plateau state and uphold its most cherished heritage of proud Home of Peace and Tourism instead of breaching the palpable peace and further plunging it into more avoidable crises.

Plateau State Governor, Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang has described the verdict of the Appeal Court that nullified his election as a temporary setback that will not deter him from repositioning the state on the path of Unity, Peace and Progress. 

He expressed strong optimism that the mandate overwhelmingly  given to him by the people of Plateau State would be restored, as he has instructed his legal team to file an appeal at the Supreme Court.

Governor Mutfwang in a statement on Sunday, by his spokesman, Gyang Bere, admonished citizens of the state and supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to remain calm and assured them that as long as God remains on the throne, the mandate of the people will be preserved and protected.

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He reiterated his commitment to the rule of law and assured the people that there is light at the end of the tunnel, as he has unwavering faith in the judiciary and the constitution of Nigeria.

Governor Mutfwang concluded with a strong appeal to supporters, as well as citizens of the state to maintain law and order. He affirmed that Plateau will be victorious to the glory of God and reassured of his commitment to continually to serve the state with dedication and integrity.

Plateau State Governor, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, has announced the appointment of key officials for the Plateau State Christian and Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Boards.

Rt. Rev. Dr. Juan Zumbes was appointed as the Chairman of the Plateau State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board, while Rev. Yusuf Wanson Bagu will serve as Executive Secretary.

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Similarly, Alhaji Danladi Kwari was appointed as Chairman of the Muslim Welfare Board, while Hon. Daiyabu Dauda will assume the role of Executive Secretary.

All the appointments were with immediate effect, a statement by the Governor’s spokesman Gyang Bere, said.

Following thorough security briefings and diligent investigation, the Plateau State Governor, Barr. Caleb Manasseh Mutfwang, has acknowledged a significant breakthrough by Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) troops.

Through credible intelligence, the troops have successfully recovered the remains of the missing Ardo of Panyam, Adamu Idris Gabdo.

In a statement, by his spokesman, Gyang Bere,the Governor strongly condemned the heinous act and lauded the perseverance and tenacity of the security personnel.

He praised their professionalism and determination in locating the body of the late Ardo.

The Governor assured the security forces of government’s unwavering support in conducting further investigations to apprehend those responsible for the crime.

Governor Mutfwang reassured of government’s commitment to upholding the rule of law in addressing all forms of criminal activities.

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He urged communities in the state not to resort to self help but to report any criminal acts to security agencies for swift action.

He reiterated his administration’s dedication to ensuring fairness and justice for all citizens, regardless of their ethnic or religious backgrounds.

The Governor expressed his condolences to the late Gabdo’s immediate family and the Fulani community in the state.

He called upon community members, as well as traditional and religious leaders, to collaborate harmoniously with the government and security agencies in order to aid in the fight against criminal activities in the state.

Governor Mutfwang reaffirmed his determination to exhibit the political will required to introduce policies, programs, and engagements that foster peace, progress, and prosperity for the citizens of Plateau.