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By Adam Ahmad, Kafanchan
A coalition of youth groups have called on Mr Gideon Gwani, the defeated PDP candidate for Kaura Federal Constituency of Kaduna State, to withdraw his appeal against the judgement of the Election Petition Tribunal.
Gwani, the immediate past House Minority Whip, had filed an Appeal after the tribunal affirmed the victory of Donatus K. Mathew of the Labour Party at the Feb. 25 National Assembly Election.
The youths made the call on Tuesday during a peaceful march to the three Chiefdoms in Kaura, to get them to prevail on Gwani to sheathe his sword.
In his remarks, Mr Francis Peter, Coordinator of Kaura Integrity Youths, said the court case was distracting Rep Mathew from delivering the dividends of democracy to his constituents.
Peter argued that the large sums of money being expended on the litigation by both parties could have been channeled to development projects in the constituency.
“The course case is not allowing our representative to focus on the job at hand.
“And the resources that should be used to develop our constituency is now being used to pursue the case in court.
“We want our traditional institutions to intervene and see to it that his matter is resolved internally without involving the courts anymore,” he added
Also speaking, Mr Ashinge Kanga, spokesperson of Kaura Youth Coalition, noted that having served for 16 years, it was only fair for Gwani to give the youths a chance at the table of governance.
Kanga said given his wealth of legislative experience, they expected Gwani to give guidance and direction to the new member instead of dragging him to court.
On his part, Mr Emmanuel Bagu, Coordinator of Kaura Concerned Youths, thanked Gwani for his contributions to development of the area over the years and urged him to throw his weight behind his successor.
Bagu maintained that while Gwani was within his constitutional right to appeal the verdict of the tribunal, the collective will and interest of the Kaura people should always come first.
“We are grateful for his contribution over the years but now is the time for him to get behind the new lawmaker.
“We understand that it’s his right to appeal but we want him to have a rethink and drop this case for the good of everyone,” he stated
In their separate remarks, the representatives of the Takad, Kagoro and Moroa chiefdoms in Kaura Local Government Area all promised to look into the issue.
