6th September, 2015
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau on Sunday said that he would complete all critical projects initiated by his predecessor, Jonah Jang.
Lalong made this known during a thanksgiving service at the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) headquarters in Jos to mark his 100 days in office.
The governor said that the projects were for the benefit of the people of Plateau and should not be discarded on the altar of political differences.
“Many projects we are executing now were initiated by the past administration; we will not abandon them because they are for the people of Plateau.
“The contractors working on Yakubu Gowon dual carriage way are back to site and by the grace God, by this week, we are going to mobilise them fully,” he said.
He said the state was one of the few that had so far paid five months salary arrears and three months pension without the bailout fund.
Lalong assured the people that as soon as the state gets the bailout from the Federal Government, it would clear the backlog of salaries owed workers.
According to him, part of his campaign promise was to restructure the civil service for effective service delivery.
“On the issue of security which is our number one priority, the state government, in collaboration with Operation Safe Haven, has gone very far.
“We have already put in a lot and we are not relenting.
“Let us be patient, we will do our best to protect the lives of the people of Plateau because that is the essence of government anywhere in the world,” he added.
The governor said he decided to give an account of his administration in its first 100 days to keep the people abreast of what government was doing.
“We will not wait till four years to tell you what we are doing; we will continue to give periodic account of what we are doing,” he said.
He expressed gratitude to the people of the state for their prayers and urged them to call his administration to order whenever it was derailing.
COCIN President, Dr Dachollom Datiri, in his remarks, thanked the governor for choosing COCIN to celebrate his 100 days in office.
Datiri said 100 days were worth celebrating and urged the governor and his team to hold unto God as they work toward effecting change in the state.
The COCIN president advised the governor to use his office for the glory of God bearing in mind that the Plateau project was that of every citizen.
He prayed that the security challenges bedevilling the state would be addressed soon.
NAN reports that Datiri and Dr Soja Bewarang, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) Chairman in Plateau, prayed for the governor, his deputy and their wives.