Sophia Michaels
.
The ruling All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party have slammed the the Plateau State Police Command.
They condemned the police for barring the state legislators access to perform their duties following the sealing off of the Assembly complex.
The parties which spoke to The PUNCH in separate interviews in Jos, the state capital, accused the police of working to destroy democracy in Plateau State and demanded the unsealing of the State House of Assembly to allow legislators to perform their functions.
The PUNCH reports that for the past three weeks, the Plateau State House of Assembly had remained under lock and key at the instance of the police high command whose personnel manned the Assembly complex daily.
The police had said its action was on the need to maintain law and order in the wake of the latest leadership crisis rocking the Assembly
over who should be recognized as the authentic Speaker between Ayuba Abok, who represents Jos East Constituency and Yakubu Sanda, who represents Pengana Constituency.
Lawmakers have not conducted plenary elections since the police took over the state legislature as they were barred from the Assembly complex.
But the State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, John Akans, on Wednesday said it was unbelievable that the police could wake up and stop the functions of another arm of government without recourse to the law, describing it as unconstitutional, reprehensible, abuse of power and brazen show of partisanship.
He said, “As a party, we are monitoring the situation with keen interest. We are made to understand that the state Commissioner of Police has taken sides with the state government to seal the Assembly for no justifiable reason.
“We are consulting with our lawyers to know where the Commissioner of Police derives his powers to stop the function of another arm of the government which is the legislature. He should explain to the Plateau people why he has chosen to destroy democratic practice in the state. Ordinarily, the CP has no constitutional right to do that because what is available to us as a party is a declaratory judgement reinstating Rt Honourable Abok Ayuba as the legitimate Speaker of the State Assembly.
“There is no other judgement setting aside that judgement. Let him produce it if he has a contrary judgement. So, we know the judgement still exists and notice of appeal, if any, is not the same as a stay of execution. And even at that, Abok had already resumed
