Why I Preferred To Be Plateau Senator – Lalong

Former minister of labour and employment, Simon Lalong, has given reasons for quitting President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s cabinet to be the senator representing Plateau South senatorial district. He spoke yesterday in Abuja after his swearing-in by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

Akpabio congratulated Lalong, who also served as the director-general of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaigns during the 2023 presidential election that produced Tinubu as president.

Lalong, a former speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, tendered his resignation as minister to Tinubu on Tuesday.

Lalong said he wanted to be a senator after he served his tenure as governor in May 2023, saying: “This was my first choice, to be candid.”

According to him, he opted to hold the position of minister in the interim and on the invitation of Tinubu because he had a case he was pursuing at the courts.

Also, reacting to the inauguration, the national chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, described it as a moment of happiness.

“This is a moment of happiness. We are so happy that he won at the Court of Appeal.

“What Nigerians will expect is good legislation. As we know, the APC has the majority and will work for the prosperity of all Nigerians,” Ganduje added.

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, had on November 7 upheld the judgment of the lower tribunal, which declared Lalong the winner of the Plateau-South Senatorial District election.

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, initially declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Napoleon Bali, as the winner.

Bali had scored 148,844 votes, while Lalong recorded 91,674, according to INEC.

But Lalong challenged the result on the grounds that the PDP had no proper structures in the state on which a candidate could contest an election.