By Filibus Jonathan
The unanimous approval granted on the request of Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, of Adamawa State by the House of Assembly to constitute Local Government Transition Committees recently was not without relinquishing councillorship seats in some LGAs.
The Governor and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party( PDP) had to relinquish 2 councillorship seats in 12 Local Government Areas that produced APC/ADC members in order to get the members’ support for the request to see the light of the day.
This is so because without the support of the opposition guys in the house, the request wouldn’t have gotten the required support of two third majority to scale through.
The opposition members had earlier kicked against it until the allocation of 2 seats for each to bring in their stooges for the appointment.
No doubt, when the members were making amendments on the local government law, some APC members stood their ground that the appointments of LGT Committees must be in consultation with them.
Initially, the opposition members were said to be bargaining for Chairmanship and 3 Councillorship seats for each one of them since PDP did not win in their respective LGAs, and the fact that they are the ones in control of their areas. But the ruling party said no ba za ta harbu ba, bindiga a ruwa, thereby relinquishing 2 seats for them for their supporters.
Even though it was a costly bargain, the Governor and the ruling party had to let it go in order to achieve their set objectives and for peace to rein.
This means that anytime the Governor wants to appoint commissioners or make any other appointment, the APC/ADC members must be allocated slots to bring in their people to form part of this government if not the appointment would not be approved.
In fact, relinquishing the seats raised a very serious dust across various wards selected by the members to plant APC supporters in PDP government.
Actually, the decision did not go down well with PDP ward chairmen and other supporters who had their names earlier listed for the appointment. But to their dismay, their dreams later turned to be a nightmare. In fact, the APC councillors have since been sworn in and assumed their respective offices.
I know of a PDP Ward Chairman who made adequate preparation for his swearing in ceremony as councillor, but he was later told that it was one APC supporter that would be sworn- in. This actually made him very disappointed and frustrated.
Filibus Jonathan
A Journalist Write this from Yola
