A Chieftain of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a former member of the House of Representatives, RT. Hon. George Daika, said the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is not on ground in Plateau State, saying “I don’t believe in the existence of APC on the Plateau”.
Daika in an exclusive chat with DAILYPOST in Jos said, “I want to assure you that there is no APC on ground on the Plateau. I don’t believe in the existence of APC on the Plateau.
“You can see clearly for yourself that if you go to the APC secretariat, you will find out, aside the Igbo traders, car dealers, welders and rug carpet sellers; you don’t see the sign of any human being there. There is no activity taking place there. But go to the PDP secretariat, you will see a lot of activities taking place, because people believe in the party. They believe in the leadership of the party. They believe in the caliber of the people that we have at the state and national assemblies. That has actually been our strength and our profile.
The former Lawmaker maintained that, “As far as I am concerned, our status remains the same. So we do not doubt winning the 17 local government elections if they are held. That’s why I think the APC is scared of conducting the local government elections because it knows, from the reports it is receiving, that it will not make any impact, even in Shendam where the governor comes from. PDP will still win.
“We are fully prepared and even if they say today the local government elections will hold, we will win overwhelmingly. People actually did what they did out of protest, out of annoyance, and some out of mere sentiments.
“What has the APC been doing as a government, not to talk of a party? He asked.
“Some of us know how the APC structure was formed. It only exists on paper. Even as a party in government, they still don’t have structures.
“So what activities will happen at the party secretariat when they have a one-man-squad EXCO and secondly when there is nothing forthcoming from the APC?
Daika who was a former Speaker of the State House of Assembly, further stated that, “Even within the government, if you go to the Government House, the ministries, you don’t find people there. Jang was entertaining and meeting people at odd hours, unlike the present government that you hardly see people around the Government House.
“You hardly see people around the commissioners and political appointees. If you see any of the appointees interacting with people, they are doing it for their selfish interests. That political appointee is having an ambition to contest for an election or so. He wasn’t working for the interest of his principal.
On whether the party (PDP) would be strong enough to unseat the ruling APC in the State come 2019 after the challenges it had gone through, the PDP Chieftain who represented Qua’an-Pan, Mikang and Shendam Constituency in the 6th assembly in the House of Representatives, said, “It is no issue that the PDP will be strong before 2019, because it is already strong and stronger than ever. But you could see that even what happened on the Plateau in 2015, did the APC win the Southern Zone? What was the difference between the APC and the PDP? It wasn’t wide.
“The people decided to do what they did because they were aggrieved and looking for a change because they wanted the governorship to go down to the Southern Zone. The problem was that even from the Southern Zone, because we could not present a candidate as a zone that gave an advantage to the only aspirant who came from the Northern Zone, who was late Senator GNS Pwajok. And that was how he won the PDP gubernatorial primaries with a landslide victory.
“If the Southern Zone was really coordinated, and had worked together as a family, and had decided on a particular candidate, I think GNS Pwajok wouldn’t have had the opportunity of winning the election. I don’t want to really believe that GNS Pwajok was actually imposed on the people. We actually defeated ourselves in the Southern Zone. “And for some of us who felt there was no unity of purpose, we decided to do otherwise to vote for the candidate that we felt was credible, that had the pedigree and believe he could deliver, and that was late Senator GNS. And we gave him 100 percent from Mikang during the primaries,” he stressed.
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