The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Plateau Assembly

  • Azi elected as Plateau Speaker

    Hon Peter Ajang Azi has emerged as the Speaker, Plateau state house of assembly.

    Hon Azi who represents Jos North West at the house of assembly is one of the 11 APC members in the state assembly.

    His opponent in the contest Hon Istifanus Muansat of the Peoples Democratic Party representing Pankshin South constituency stepped down from the contest.

    Mr. Azi was member of the assembly from 2007 to 2011, but failed to be re-elected in 2011, he however contested again in the 2015 elections and won.

    The election for the position of speaker on the day of its inauguration was stalemated and inconclusive. But member reconvene the next day  to elect their speaker.

    In the same vein, Hon Yusuf Gagdi of the PDP, a fresh member, representing Kantana constituency, was elected Deputy Speaker.

    The house announced that it will elect other principal officers of the house in their next sitting.

    The new speaker was immediately sworn-in and other members inaugurated by the clerk of the house.

  • Protesting workers occupy Plateau Assembly

    Protesting workers occupy Plateau Assembly

    Plateau State workers yesterday occupied the premises of the House of Assembly.

    They were protesting the role of the lawmakers in the government-labour disputes.

    The organised labour has been on strike since May 5 over unpaid seven months’ salaries by the state government.

    The lawmakers, who were about to begin a sitting yesterday when the workers stormed the Assembly, ran away.

    Some of them scaled the fence while others escaped through the backdoor of the complex.

    The security agencies locked Speaker Titus Alams in his toilet and lied to the workers that he had fled.

    The aggrieved workers said they intended to seek an explanation from the Speaker on why the lawmaker refused to intervene in their face-off with the government.

    Before occupying the Assembly complex, the workers had assembled at the secretariat where they were addressed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) National Vice President Lucy Offiong.

    NLC leader, who is heading the National Task Force for enforcement of workers’ strike in the Northcentral, said: “The NLC is ready to shut all across the country, if governors refuse to address the issues of unpaid salaries pending in their states.

    “Workers are on strike for non-payment of their salaries and allowances. These governors do not care. But we want to assure them they can’t run away with the workers’ salaries. We will fight it out with them.

    “We are calling on the Federal Government to call the governors to order before the issue degenerates into a national embarrassment.”

    Plateau State NLC Chairman Jibrin Bancir  said: “Our protest is to intensify the struggle for their demands, which include addressing the problem of non-payment of salaries for seven months; non-payment of pensions for seven months; non-payment of gratuity since 2011; non-promotion of workers for seven years; local government workers and primary school teachers have been given half salaries since 2011…”

  • Plateau Assembly uncovers unspent SURE-P fund

    Plateau Assembly uncovers unspent SURE-P fund

    The Plateau State House of Assembly has discovered over N3 billion unspent Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) fund in the state since January 2012, the News Agency of Nigeria reports.

    The Chairman of the House Ad- hoc Committee on the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, Mr. Dalyop Mancha, made this known to journalists in Jos on Wednesday.

    Mancha said the committee discovered that both the state and local governments attracted fund from the SURE-P since January 2012, which the two tiers did not disbursed to the beneficiaries.

    He said the Commissioners for Finance, Local Government and Chieftaincy, the state Accountant-General, state and zonal Coordinators of SURE-P and the Director-General, Research and Planning, Plateau Government House, appeared before it.

    The chairman said the finance commissioner told the committee that the state started receiving monthly allocation of funds from the programme in January 2012, but a special account was created for it in April 2012.

    “He said the funds are intact and that the account have so far received the sum of over N3 billion arising from a monthly allocation of N218 million,’’ he said.

    Mancha said the commissioner for local governments also told the committee that the state received SURE-P funds from April 2012, and was kept in an account domiciled as local government SURE-P account.

    He said the commissioner blamed the non commencement of the programme on late submission of programme by committees’ set up in local governments for the purpose.

    He said the committee had recommended that the state and local governments should put in place mechanisms for the commencement of the programme to catch up with other states.

    Meanwhile, the house has mandated the committee to reconcile it figures with the SURE-P headquarters in Abuja.