Amidst legal fireworks surrounding his continuity in office, Governor Dairus Isiaku of Taraba State has launched his administration’s economic blue-print, tagged “Taraba Rescue Project.”
The public presentation of the mission statement took place in Jalingo at the swearing in ceremony of his newly appointed commissioners.
This came on the heels of the judgment by the Taraba State Governorship Election Tribunal which sacked him from office.
A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. Osborne Adi, told journalists in Abuja, that Taraba Rescue Project would be the platform for the state’s economic and social development of the state.
The governor explained that Taraba rescue project would serve as the road map for his administration and would also form the basis upon which the state’s 2016 budget would be built.
Governor Ishaku charged his commissioners to see their appointments as call to service as drivers of the rescue mission whose reality would not be compromised under whatever guise.
He urged the people of the state to accord his administration the desired support and cooperation in order for him to deliver to them the dividends of democracy which he promised during the electioneering campaigns.
Meanwhile, the decision of the tribunal to remove Ishaku has continued to attract criticisms from various political leaders in the states, who have described it as a miscarriage of justice.
At a gathering in Abuja, Musa John, former Nigerian envoy to Trinidad and Tobago, faulted the tribunal, saying as a former PDP governorship aspirant, he was aware that the party primary held in Abuja where he actively participated when the security situation in Jalingo, the state capital could not be guaranteed for such an event.
According to him, since all the other aspirants that participated in the Abuja party primaries did not object to the emergence of Ishaku, the tribunal was wrong in its decision that declared Sen. Aisha of the APC winner of the election.
He maintained that the tribunal erred in law by awarding Aisha the seat when in fact, she never suffered any injury arising from the PDP primaries, arguing that after all, APC won in only five out of the 16 Local Government Areas of the state and could not have been declared winner when she did not satisfy the 2/3 majority votes as enshrined in the constitution.
Also on his part, the People’s Democratic Movement candidate in the said election, Alhaji Kabiru Dodo, opined that the judgment does not augur well for the peaceful atmosphere of the state, as power belongs to God and whoever he chooses to give to should be supported instead of the current bickering in the state.
On his own part former Nigerian Ambassdor to Cameron, Mr. Emmanuel Njuwa, wondered what such an anti-people kind of judgment was set to achieve owing to the fact that Gov. Ishaku got the overwhelming votes of the people even when INEC called for a re-run in some Local Governments and wards after the main election was decided in his favour.
