Bassa/Jos North Bye-Election: Gov. Lalong Rubbishes Sen. Adudu Led Committee, Swears To Impose Abbey Aku

Yakubu Busari

Governor Simon Lalong has described Sen. Timothy Adudu led Committee set up by the Plateau State APC as kangaroo.

The Committee was set up to prune down the number of aspirants from Bassa LGA for the Bye-Election for Jos North/ Bassa Federal Constituency following the demise of Hon. Haruna Maitala died on April 02 2021 in a ghastly motor accident.

Addressing journalists at the Bishop Court on… the Chairman of Electoral sub Committee and former Commissioner in Joshua Dariye’s administration, Hon. Sam Para said the Committee adopted a transparent method by allowing each of the three Chiefdoms to adopt its method of pruning down its Aspirants to one. He added that on ….the Committee in conjunction with the party at the LGA level conducted mock primary for the three aspirants from each Chiefdom at the LGA Secretariat of the APC in Bassa and at the end of the exercise, Hon. Lumumba Dah Adeh emerged the winner and became the APC Bassa sole aspirants for the Bye-Election. Hon. Para also informed the press that the report of the Committee had already been forwarded to Gov. Lalong.

It is said that during the pruning exercise at the Chiefdom level, Hon. Joseph Abbey Aku, the current Commissioner of Commerce and Industry contested against five other aspirants but came last.

Despite the outcome of the exercise, Gov. Lalong was said to have told him not to bother about the exercise of the Committee as he was not going to implement it. Lalong is also said to have told Abbey to consider himself as the winner of the Bye-Election irrespective of the wish of anybody. He, however, advised Abbey not to make his resignation as Commissioner public.

To perfect his plan, Lalong is said to have held a meeting with selected aspirants from Jos North in Abuja on Monday and asked them to withdraw their aspirations for a Christian candidate from Bassa LGA promising to ensure that the seat goes to Hausa/Fulani of Jos North in 2023.

A source informed this medium that all the Aspirants (present in that meeting) except one agreed to step down. A stakeholder in the meeting is said to have asked the governor who his choice was and he mentioned Abbey Aku.

Another stakeholder is also said to have drawn the attention of the governor to the Sen. Adudu led Committee set up by the party for a sole candidate which Hon. Lumumba Dah Adeh came as the sole APC candidate for Bassa LGA but the governor was said to have flared up saying that it was a kangaroo Committee and that its report was already in the trash bin.

He was also said to have made it categorically clear that the Irigwe were completely out of the race, adding that as long as he is alive, Irigwe would never win not only the Bye-Election but any other election in the State.

This development is said to have created tension in Bassa local government area in particular where Abbey comes from. Those who spoke to our man alleged that apart from not being connected to the people Abbey engaged in his Political activities in Jos North and not Bassa.

“We don’t know him in Bassa as far as Political activities are concerned. He has been playing his game in Jos and was even elected Councilor Tudun Wada/ Kabong Ward. Well, we are told that his aspiration is orchestrated by Gov. Lalong. Well, we are watching. This is democracy and not a dictatorship.

Lalong is telling us that he knows us better than we know ourselves. Yes, that is what it implies. We are watching to see how it would work out for him”, a resident of Bassa who wouldn’t want his name public said.

Efforts to hear from Senator Adudu on the matter proved abortive.