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Tag: Taraba House of Assembly

  • PDP wins Taraba assembly by-election

    The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Garba Ahiya has won Saturday’s Takum 1 state constituency by-election into Taraba House of Assembly.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the election was to fill the vacant seat of the late Hosea Ibi, member of the Assembly, who was kidnapped on Dec. 31, 2017 and murdered by his abductors in January 2018.

    Dr Ayuba Kwada, the returning officer of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), announced the results on Saturday night in Takum.

    Kwada said Ajiya of PDP won five of the six constituency’s ward with a total vote of 10,725 to emerge winner, while candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Mr Atem Ansho polled a total vote of 3,268 with one ward.

    He disclosed that nine political parties participated, while results from nine polling units in Chanchanji ward were cancelled due to irregularities.

    According to him, “The total number of vote cast was 14,717; total number of valid votes was 14,337 while 380 votes were rejected.”

    Reacting to the election result, Gov Darius Ishaku of Taraba, described the process as a litmus test for the 2019 general elections in the state.

    He noted that the victory margin could have been wider if all those that turned out to exercise their franchise had their Permanent Voters Cards, (PVCs).

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    Ishaku, who commended the peaceful conduct of the election, restated the need for state police to permanently tackle insecurity.

    “The country will be more efficient with pronounced secuty if it adopts state policing just like the United States of America where our democracy took it roots.”

    The candidate of the APC has, however, rejected the outcome of the by-election.

    He alleged that collation were still ongoing in some wards when hired thugs forced electoral officers to leave some polling units to other destinations and changed the results.

    Ansho, however, said he was in talks with his lawyers for advice on the next course of action.

  • Taraba speaker lauds state govt for recruiting 3,000 teachers

    Taraba speaker lauds state govt for recruiting 3,000 teachers

    Mr Abel Diah, the Speaker of Taraba House of Assembly, on Friday lauded the state government for recruiting 3,000 secondary school teachers to boost education in the state.

    He said the massive recruitment of teachers would turnaround the education narratives in the state.

    He said this in Jalingo while distributing appointment letters to 200 of the successful teachers from Sardauna Local Government area of the state.

    The Speaker said that the injection of the 3,000 teachers into secondary schools would go a long way in improving academic standards in the state.

    Diah urged teachers from his community to key into the governor’s rescue mission by contributing their quota to reposition the state’s secondary school education.

    “I congratulate you, the 200 successful candidates from Sardauna Local Government Area on your success at the recent teacher’s recruitment examinations by the government.

    “The recruitment of 3,000 secondary school teachers across the 16 Local Government areas is a practical step to improve on the standard of education in the state,” he said.

    Mr Gibeon Kataps, a former Secretary to Taraba Government and community leader, commended the efforts of the governor in repositioning education in the state.

    Kataps implored the teachers to work hard to justify the confidence reposed in them by the people of the state.

    NAN

  • Taraba Assembly constitutes committee on constitutional amendment

    Taraba Assembly constitutes committee on constitutional amendment

    The Taraba House of Assembly has constituted a three-man committee to coordinate and harmonise its members’ positions on the upcoming amendment of the 1999 Constitution by the National Assembly.

    Its Speaker, Mr Abel Diah, who announced this during plenary on Wednesday, said that the committee, chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Alhaji Mohammadu Gwampo, has Mr Hosea Ibi and Alhaji Bashir Mohammed as members.

    He said that the committee was expected to aggregate members’ views ahead of the vote on the provisions of the constitution being altered.

    Diah said that the proposed amendment was very crucial to the deepening of the nation’s democracy, and urged the committee to be thorough and strive to capture the true positions of Taraba people on the issues.

    He urged his colleagues to help the committee by consulting with their respective constituencies on the items slated for amendment.

    “Our decisions must reflect the wishes and desires of the good people of Taraba State; we cannot compromise that,” he said.

    The speaker commended his colleagues for contributing towards developing their constituencies using private resources, and lamented that legislators in Taraba had not enjoyed constituency project allowances since return of democracy in 1999.

    Mr Charles Maijankai, member representing Karim-lanido Constituency, in a remark, said that the current economic recession was hitting hard on the lawmakers, making it difficult for some of them to fuel their vehicles to attend plenary.

    “Things are hard; there is the need to improve the welfare of members for optimum productivity,” Maijankai said.

  • Taraba: NUT urges members to maintain law, order

    Alhaji Jauro Mafindi, the Chairman of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in Taraba  on Tuesday advised  union members to maintain law and order in all their endeavours.

    Mafindi said this at a press conference in Jalingo while reacting to the decision by some teachers to embark on a protest over non-payment of salaries without informing the leadership of the union.

    He said though teachers had the right to protest non-payment of their salaries, due process should be followed.

    “To be frank with you, nobody officially informed me about the decision to embark on protest against the non-payment of our members’ salaries.

    “As a matter of fact, the strike was unnecessary because all the said complaints had already been articulated by us and sent to the appropriate authorities.

    “So if they had contacted us, we would have advised them to exercise patience because last Thursday, government had started paying some teachers as a result of our efforts.

    “Therefore, I  am appealing to all my members to be orderly in all their dealings because it is only when we are coordinated that we can achieve our collective objectives,” he said.

    On the claim by the state government that it had paid all outstanding salaries of workers, Mafindi said the government was only “playing to the gallery.’’

    “That was a political statement because the state government had stopped paying teachers’ salaries since Oct. 2016.

    “And even for the few teachers they started paying last Thursday, they have not completed the payment.

    “And of course there is the case of some workers who have been wrongly captured in the list of teachers. These people have also not been paid,” he said.

    Angry teachers had stormed Taraba House of Assembly on Monday to protest the non-payment of their eight months salaries.