Plateau Speaker Reels out 10th Assembly’s One year Scorecard

The Plateau State 10th Assembly which was inaugurated on the 13th June, 2023, is said to have achieved a lot in legislative and administrative businesses despite the instability of the House in their five months of inauguration as a result of political litigations.

The 10th Assembly was inaugurated and the members unanimously adopted Mr. Moses Sule of Mikang constituency as Speaker and Fom Gwattson of Jos South constituency as deputy Speaker until their resignation and subsequent adoption of Rt. Hon. Gabriel Dewan of the Young People’s Party (YPP), Pankshin North as Speaker on the 21st November, 2023.

Sixteen of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Lawmakers who initially formed the majority in the Assembly were later sacked by the Justice Monica Dongban led Appeal Court over “party’s structure” in December, 2023.

Despite the instability in the House, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Gabriel Dewan said the House was able to passed 7 bills out of which 2 have already been assented to by the State Governor, Barrister Caleb Mutfwang.

The Speaker was speaking while addressing the Plateau State House of Assembly correspondents at his official residence, in 14 units, near old Government House, Rayfield Jos.

Aside the bills, the Speaker said with the interest of the state in the hearts of the lawmakers, the members layoff their political party differences and moved motions of public importance that have direct bearing on the citizens of their constituencies and the entire state.

Most importantly, the Speaker said some of the motions are those that concerned Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the state and that of the increment of scholarships for Plateau State students which the governor has approved and tripled the Scholarship stipends for the students.

“I must commend the members because as we all know, whenever we come to the Assembly, the more you cross the gate, our party differences are buried and that is why you see we have been enjoying peace in the state Assembly.” He said.

Speaking on infrastructure, the number 3 citizen of Plateau State said the 10th Assembly was able to renovate the Assembly complex to provide a conducive office accommodation to all the 24 members, administrative staff and also fixed the water and electricity challenges in the complex.

According to him, before now about 16 to 17 members of the house had no offices because of the dilapidated nature of the complex.

“But I can tell you now that with the remodeling, all the members can have office, not just them but including the workers and even you the reporters, the environment will be more conducive for you to work.” He added.

He said they were able to resolved the lingering issue of over employment of staff in the Assembly by the 9th Assembly and the complaints from various constituency of lack of fairness in the employment. The Speaker also noted that they were able to increased the salary of adhoc staff of the House of Assembly from N30,000 to N50,000.

On human capacity building, the Speaker said they were able to organized different workshop for members of the 10th Assembly within Nigeria and oversees on legislative businesses. He added that just two weeks ago management staff of the Assembly also traveled abroad for a capacity building workshop to offer better service to the Assembly.

Rt. Hon. Dewan said they were able to drilled solar panel borehole to address the acute water scarcity within the Assembly complex. He noted that they were able to also fixed the transformer to address power supply in the House.

He added that the House liaised with the governor through the commissioner for works and fixed the back street of the House of Assembly.

He said the members are also engaging their various constituents in town hall meetings aimed at addressing some security challenges bedeviling the state.

“There are lots of other things that we were able to achieve as Assembly and we are committed to do more.