Youths, women protest in Jos, call for review of judgments sacking 2 senators, four Reps
Youths and women from the Muslim community in Plateau State on Thursday joined in protesting the Appeal court judgments which sacked two Senators and four Members of the House of Representatives, all of them candidates of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP.
This comes on the heels of the Wednesday protest which saw youths from the 17 local government areas of the State barricading major thoroughfares like the Old Airport Junction and Mararaba Jemaa, asking that the court should not rob the State of the mandate the people gave to the PDP.
The people unanimously describe the development as an act of injustice and an attempt to rob them of their mandate.
They called on the National Judicial Council, NJC to review the Appeal court judgments as one of the protesters, Iliya James said, “How can the mandate of someone who scored over 95,000 votes in an election be nullified by the court and the person who scored about 35,000 votes declared as the winner? This is a miscarriage of justice.
“This is banditry, and we are here to express our dissatisfaction with the action of the Court of Appeal. These people were overwhelmingly voted for by the people of Plateau and the action of the court is trying to kill democracy using technicalities and dampening the morale of voters.
“We call on the NJC to review these judgments to restore these mandates to the original winners; those that the masses actually for. The judiciary should do something about its sinking image.”
The protest was however peaceful with security presence to forestall any breach of the peace.”
The Secretary of Hausa/Fulani PDP Forum, Abdulkarim Yaro and a women leader of the group, Lubabatu Ali called on Nigerians to rise against what they termed as “injustice against the people of Plateau.”
According to Yaro, “We got up to express our displeasure with the recent judgments by the Appeal Court because we know we have been robbed of our mandate. In other States, this issue has been taken as a pre-election matter, but why is the case of Plateau different?
“We from the Muslim community, align our voice with all the groups from Plateau who came out to speak against this injustice, we were to protest but the Police said no so as law-abiding citizens, we have no other option than to obey but we demand that the whole nation should look at Plateau. Why are we treated differently?
“We know this has been a pre-election issue, we want justice. We all came out massively and supported the PDP and the Party won with a difference of 40,000; to 50,000. So much resources and energy have been expended. This Congress they are saying, I am a member of the PDP and I participated in it. It happened in the presence of INEC, it happened in the presence of the people.
Those complaining are not card-carrying members of the Party. We must not be robbed this way.”
Hajia Ali added, “As women, we are not happy with what is happening. The PDP government is not illegal, we voted the Party and the People we voted into office are working. We call for fairness and equity, Plateau’s cases must be treated fairly by the Courts…”
