Andrew Ajijah
The long-awaited swearing-in of the chairman of Langtang North Local Government Council, Hon. Joshua Laven, has formally taken place.
He was sworn-in, on Wednesday, by Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state.
Local government elections in Plateau State were conducted in 13 out of 17 local government areas on the 10th of October 2018 with APC winning 16 council areas.
Governor Lalong said the delay in swearing in Hon. Laven was due to local government electoral litigations.
“With the discontinuation of the suit by the petitioner, we no longer have any constraint inhibiting us from swearing in the declared winner of the election.”
Governor Lalong stressed that “As for Lantang North Local Government, the elected chairman could not be sworn in because of a subsisting court order.
“As a law-abiding government, we could not have gone against a lawful order of the court to swear him in.”
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It would be recalled that Hon. Laven contested and won the chairmanship seat for Langtang North on the platform of People Democratic Party (PDP) but his APC counterpart was rather sworn-in.
Hon. Joshua Laven had approached Local Government Election Petition Tribunal to seek justice, but could not be declared winner. He then further approached an Appeal Tribunal and was declared victorious.
Meanwhile, the governor had also sworn-in four transition committee chairmen where elections could not be held.
Recall that elections could not hold in Riyom, Barkinladi, Jos South and Jos North due to insecurities.
The governor informed that when security situations improves in the areas elections would be conducted there.
“While this is being done, we have reconstituted the Management Committees in line with the provisions of the law and in a bid to ensure smooth governance in those areas.
“This situation therefore necessitated the setting up of Management Committees to run the affairs of the Local Government areas, pending the improvement of security for elections to hold in these places.”
