The face-off between the Plateau State Government and the sacked chairmen of local government councils took a new twist on Monday.
This followed the allegation by the state government that the chairmen plan to forcefully take over the secretariats of their respective Councils.
The government on Monday said such actions are viewed as an affront on the authority of the state Governor, Barrister Simon Lalong, on whose directive and pronouncement the councils were dissolved.
The government, in a statement by the Director of Press and Public Affairs, Emmanuel Nanle, said it would not fold it hands and watch citizens engage in acts that are capable of disrupting the fragile peace in the state.
The statement said: “It is therefore in furtherance to this that the Governor, Rt. Hon. Simon Bako Lalong, has directed the Commissioner of Police and all Directors of Personnel Management to ensure the premises of the various Local Government Councils are secured from mischief makers and for all who turned themselves into a threat to peace on the Plateau to be brought to book.
“There shall be no sacred cows in Government’s efforts to ensure the security of lives and properties.
“For the purpose of emphasis the Local Government Executive and Legislative Councils stand dissolved and the Directors of Personnel Managements are the recognized administrators of the various Councils.”
In another development, the state government has condemned in strong terms Sunday’s bomb blast targeted at worshipers of the ECWA Church, Angwan Yashi, Tudun Wada.
Governor Lalong said the attempt is yet another reality of the security challenge the state is contending with in the face of the unrelenting attempts by agents of terror who do not share in the peoples value of faith.
He said that the blast came without a casualty despite the magnitude of the explosion is a testimony of the fact that God himself is in the business of bringing to an end this reign of terror over the land.
The governor saluted the courage of the guards and youth who braced all odds at great personal risk to dispose of the bomb before the explosion, adding: “The courage to stand for each other is no doubt what is needed at times like this.”
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