I’m Confused Over Moving To Senate Or Staying In Tinubu’s Govt – Minister
Simon Lalong, Minister of Labour and Employment, has expressed uncertainty about whether he should move to the senate or maintain his current role in President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet.
Our heritage reporter reports that having served two terms as the governor of Plateau State, Lalong faced electoral defeat on February 25, 2023. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced Napoleon Bali of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the winner of the election.
Unhappy with the election result, Lalong pursued legal action and won at the tribunal. Despite Bali’s appeal, the appellate court, led by Justice Elfaida Williams-Dawodu, affirmed the tribunal’s decision, declaring the votes for the PDP candidate as unlawful. The court instructed INEC to withdraw Bali’s certificate of return and issue a new one to Lalong.
Lalong, accompanied by associates, visited the INEC headquarters in Abuja last month to collect his certificate.
Lalong said, “Each time I am with him (a comrade), he will remind me that, please don’t go to Senate, please remain with us at the Ministry of Labour. Maybe that is not what my constituency will also say because as I am now, I am a very confused man, because whether to go to left or go to right but pray for me to take the best decision.
“If I remain with you, I will remain as a comrade but if I go there. I told comrade Oshiomhole, I said they mentioned you to go and speak on behalf of the Labour. I said no, Comrade Aremu should speak. They said ‘why?’, I said as a senator, I think you have partly committed class suicide. You may be shifting a little bit, until we see you after for four years, we will not confirm that you are intact. So it is only that time that we will know whether you have committed class suicide or you are still within as a comrade.”
