|
Gov
Gov. Dariye returns soon
-Ogbeh
pledges
JOSEPH ERUNKE, Jos
A MID speculations
on whether suspended Gov. Joshua Dariye of Plateau State would regain his
position or not after emergency rule, National Chairman of the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Audu Ogbeh yesterday declared that Dariye will
shortly return to his exalted seat.
Ogbeh warned those working against Dariye’s return to
re-examine their heads and described their position as "an embarrassment."
The party chairman who spoke at the PDP
State secretariat, made the avowal moments after possible bloodbath was averted
when armed security agents nearly clashed with thousands of Dariye supporters
who trooped out to receive Chief Ogbeh at the Gen. Yakubu Gowon Airport, Heipang,
near Jos.
But reports said that the state
administration barred elected council chairmen and the state-owned media from
covering a reception, led by Ogbeh, for prominent returnees to PDP, including
All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) governorship candidate in the 2003 polls in
Plateau, Air Comdr Jonah Jang, his Alliance for Democracy (AD) counterpart in
the polls, Damishi Sango, Senator V. K. Dangin, Prof. Dakum Shown and others.
Speaking amidst thunderous ovation, Chief
Ogbeh, who was accompanied to the grounds by Chief Solomon Lar, Ambassador
Yahaya Kwande, Senator Bagudu Hirse, former Plateau governor, Mr. Fidelis Tapgun,
PDP national secretary, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor, Cmdr Jang and others, insisted
that Dariye would return.
With the return of peace in the state
following the imposition of emergency rule on May 18 this year, Chief Ogbeh
acknowledged that it was now time to return the state to the path of democracy,
arguing that the state cannot be an exemption among the democratic governments
in the 36 states of the country.
According to him, the imposition of a
state of emergency on the state was an embarrassment not only to the people of
the state but to the entire Middle Belt zone.
He wondered why the state should be
singled out considering in his view that it had sacrificed so much to the growth
and unity of the country.
The PDP chairman who visited the state as
part of efforts to formally receive the party’s former members who had earlier
decamped to other political parties in the heat of dispute over the results of
the 2003 gubernatorial election, reaffirmed that the party has no plan for any
fresh election in Plateau State just as he said there was no such provision in
the constitution.
Chief Ogbeh who was visibly angry over the
development in Plateau, said "it is an embarrassment for any member of this our
great party to say let Joshua Dariye not come back."
He urged the returnees to PDP to have the
interest of the state and the need for peace and true reconciliation at heart
and enjoined them to accept wholeheartedly to work with the suspended governor
when he returns after the state of emergency ends on November 18 this year.
He remarked that leadership comes from
God, hence the returnees must accept their fate, adding that nobody that
struggled to any leadership position in the country has ever succeed.
Chief Ogbeh who disclosed the PDP would
organise a seminar to determine the economic future of Plateau State and the
country in general, stressed the need for the people of the state to sustain the
peaceful coexistence being witnessed in the state now.
"The people in Plateau State have made me
proud by inventing reconciliation just as other countries of the world are
inventing cars and other movable machines," he said.
Also speaking, the first civilian governor
of the state, Chief lar charged Chief Ogbeh to convey the message of people of
the state to President Olusegun Obasanjo that "we want the immediate restoration
of the dissolved democratic structure as Plateau State is now back to itself."
Earlier, at the airport, security
operatives had allegedly ordered the high profile team waiting to receive Ogbeh
and led by Chief Lar to quit the area originally planned for the reception.
It was gathered that though approval "from
high quarters" had earlier been given for the reception, the said approval war,
however, withdrawn in the early hours of yesterday.
But the party men, it was gathered,
remained undaunted as they all waited at the airport, contrary to the directives
given by security agents, even as the latter threatened to use force to disperse
them.
A deal was, however, struck when the state
party leadership dispersed over 80 per cent of the its supporters who all
converged at the party’s secretariat to wait for the programme that brought
together the returnees.
|
