Plateau Guber: Battle for Consensus Candidate Tear Apart Politicians Opposing Jang’s Anointed Successor

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines, News From The State Saturday, November 22nd, 2014

Agabus Pwanagba, Jos

Barely two weeks to the governorship primaries of the PDP, a group, Equity and Justice Forum  founded by a former PDP Chairman in Plateau State  Prof. Dakum Shown appears to be in a state of quandary.

Plateau state governor Jonah Jang

The group is  the umbrella body for aggrieved politicians who are against the choice of Governor Jonah Jang’s anointed candidate, Sen.Gyang Pwajok for the 2015 governorship polls.

The disagreement appears to be stemming from the efforts of the group to pick a consensus candidate from the Southern Senatorial Zone to challenge Sen.Gyang Pwajok in the forth coming primaries.

AFRICAN EXAMINER gathered  that the leadership of the forum met with all  the 7 aspirants from the Southern Senatorial  zone, and advised some of them to drop their ambitions in  support of the ideas of a consensus candidate.

A reliable source close to the meeting said that the idea was for all  the 7 aspirants to unite behind one person who would then challenge Senator Pwajok.

The source further confirmed that some of the aspirants however rejected the idea of dropping their ambition, accusing the leadership of the  Equity and Justice Forum of taking sides and acting on behalf of a particular candidate, even as they threatened to continue their  ambition independent of the Prof. Dakum Shown led  forum.

The aspirants who met with the leadership of the Equity and Justice Forum in Jos, included Deputy governor Ignatius Longjan, former Governor Fidelis Tapgun, former Director-General of the Industrial Training Fund, (ITF), Prof Longmas Wapmut, Senator Victor Lar, Architect John Alkali, Engr. Jimmy Cheto and Godfrey Oman Miri.

However a close confidant of one of the aspirants told our correspondent that his boss was keeping an open mind about the consensus situation, but that they do not trust the body language of the  leadership of the Equity and Justice Forum.

His words, “We can already sense foul play in the process, we know that these people are  playing the script of one of these candidates (whom we know), to facilitate his emergence, but we shall resist that vehemently.”