The Nasarawa State Governor Umar, Tanko Al-Makura has decried the activities of the opposition political parties in the state, saying their lackadaisical performance has left so much to be desired.
Al-Makura said that the opposition had failed in the discharge of their duties and have fallen short of expectations.
The governor said that the opposition parties in Nasarawa had become comatose and non-existent.
But the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, said that Governor Al-Makura would be proved wrong in the 2019 elections.
The governor spoke during the official inauguration of the state Executive Committee members of the ruling All Progressives Congress at the state secretariat of the ruling party in Lafia, the state capital, lambasted the opposition political parties in the state over what he described as the glaring weakness they had continued to exhibit in playing their role of the opposition.
He said the opposition parties in the state, especially the PDP, picked holes in the development efforts by his government and for carrying out meaningful projects that have direct bearing on the people of the state.
Al-Makura ruled the opposition parties out of the 2019 contest, stressing that they “have missed it and would not come back again.”
According to him, “opposition parties as far as Nasarawa State is concerned, are comatose and dead.”
He said the only major opposition political parties in the state, the PDP and the All Progressives Grand Alliance, had long “died,” describing APGA in the state as a “one man show.”
Al-Makura said it was unfortunate that APGA, which lacked any strong standing in the state, could concentrate on “unnecessary and baseless criticisms.”
He disclosed that his administration merely refrained from seizing the PDP secretariat in the state, which he claimed was built with the money taken from the state coffers.
“The intention of the current government is to claim the PDP secretariat, which was built under the PDP government, when it was in power, but we don’t want to reclaim anything from the dead,” he said.
Al-Makura also used the occasion to formally declare his ambition to contest the seat of the Nasarawa South Senatorial District in the 2019 general elections, calling on the electorate in the zone to join his camp for effective representation in the upper chamber of the National Assembly.
But in a swift reaction the state PDP Chairman, Hon. Francis Orogu, dismissed the claims by Governor Al-Makura that the PDP had become comatose.
Orogu said the 2019 election would determine which of the parties in the state had become comatose.
The state PDP chairman, however, blasted Al-Makura for declaring his intention to contest a Senate seat in 2019, saying the governor lacked the qualities required to be a legislator.
“Al-Makura doesn’t have the qualities and capabilities of being a legislator,” he said.
