Plateau South Senatorial District: Bali out, Lalong in

A former Minister of Labour Employment and Productivity, Simon Lalong, has been sworn in as a member of the 10th Senate.

Lalong was sworn in on Wednesday at a session presided over by the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

He took the oath of office around 11.57am on the floor of the Senate.

Akpabio immediately congratulated Lalong, a former governor of Plateau State, and the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress Campaigns during the 2023 presidential poll that produced President Bola Tinubu.

Lalong will represent Plateau-South on the platform of the APC.

Lalong had tendered his resignation to President Bola Tinubu earlier on Tuesday.

Speaking soon after his inauguration, Lalong said he actually wanted to be a senator after he served his tenure as governor in May 2023.

Lalong said, “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.

Lalong promised to do his best to serve his electorate to the best of his abilities.

The National Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, described the inauguration 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 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.