Plateau lawmakers on Tuesday stopped the screening of Commissioner-nominees of Governor Simon Lalong and shut the House of Assembly up.

They were protesting against the governor’s alleged refusal to pay them their outstanding sitting allowances.

According to some of the lawmakers who spoke to our correspondent on conditions of anonymity, shutting down the Assembly was the only available option to force the governor to respond to their demands.

“Governor Lalong is not considerate to the plight of the lawmakers, it appears he is playing on our intelligence by procrastinating on the payment of our entitlement,” said a lawmaker, adding “Before we commenced the screening of the commissioner nominees, the governor promised to pay us the money which informed our screening of over eighteen (18)nominees, he earlier sent”

“We later discover that the governor is playing on our intelligence, hence our line of action to put a stop to further screening of the remaining commissioners, pending the payment of our entitlement by the governor. ”

“No Payment No Screening”, they maintained.

Some of the commissioners who arrived the Assembly venue very early for the screening early waited in vain to be ushered into the hallowed chamber until they discovered to their embarrassment that the prolonged quiet in the premises was the product of a deliberate action and not caused by delay of any sort.

Many had come in company of their supporters and had to leave in confusion.

The screening exercise for the commissioners entered its second working day after it commencing on Friday last week and with the new development, it is unclear when and how it would end.

As at the time of going to press, there was no reaction from the government, neither did any official approached on the matter utter a word on it.

Credit: Yakubu Busari

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Angry Plateau Legislators Discontinue Screening of Commissioner Nominees Over Unpaid Allowances