More protests have continued in Jos, Plateau State, as hundreds of youths and the women Muslim community in in the State Thursday rejected the verdict of the Appeal Court sacking two Senators and four Members of the House of Representatives of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the state.
The protests took place on the heels of prior protests which brought together youths from the 17 Local Government Areas of the state, who barricaded major streets like the Old Airport and Mararaba Jama’a junctions, demanding a review of the judgements by the appelate court.
The youths described the decision of the court as “injustice and an attempt to rob” the state of the mandate the people handed over to the PDP.
Secretary of Hausa/Fulani PDP Forum, Abdulkarim Yaro, called on the National Judicial Council (NJC) to review the judgments which was hinged on pre-election matters that the Appeal tribunal did not have jurisdiction to entertain.
According to him, “we 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 was taken as pre-election matters, why is the case of Plateau different?
“We from the Muslim community, align our voices 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 them, but we demand that the whole nation should look at Plateau. Why are we treated differently?”
Also speaking, Woman Leader of the group, Lubabatu Ali, called on stakeholders in the judiciary and Nigeria to rise against what they termed as “injustice against the people of the state”.
She said, “we know this has been a pre-election issue and we want justice. We all came out massively and supported the PDP and the party won with a difference of about 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; why are people not sincere, who is targeting at Plateau and for what reason?”
“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. We demand for a review of all the cases from Plateau,” she said.
Another protester, Iliya Musa 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 be declared as the winner? This is a miscarriage of justice.
“This is banditry, and we are here to express our dissatisfaction with the actions 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 so as to restore these mandates to the original winners; those that the masses actually voted for. The judiciary should do something about its sinking image.”
The protest was however peaceful with security presence to forestall any breach of peace.
