Former governor of Plateau State, Simon Lalong, has been sworn in as Senator representing Plateau South senatorial district.
Lalong, who resigned from President Bola Tinubu’s cabinet on Tuesday as labour minister was administered the oath of allegiance by the Clerk of the Senate, Mr. Chinedu Akubueze during plenary presided over by Godswill Akpabio.
Lalong, first minister to resign from President Tinubu’s cabinet, was accompanied to the Red Chambers by the Chairman of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, and other loyalists. He told newsmen after taking his oath that the parliament had always been his first choice.
“I started by being a legislator. This is not something new to me. I was speaker of the House of Assembly for seven years. When I was in the cabinet and I was declared winner by the court, the president called me and asked me to make a choice. He and the party gave me the permission to come here. I am thankful to the constituents, and they will not be disappointed. I will do my best to serve them.”
His return to the National Assembly followed his declaration as winner of the Plateau-South Senatorial election by the appeal court, following the disqualification of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had declared the PDP’s Bali Napoleon as having won with 148,844 votes against Governor Lalong who scored 91,674 votes, while Tobias Nda of the Labour Party (LP) scored 17,325 votes.
However, the Court of Appeal had, following a suit filed by Lalong, upheld his claim that the PDP did not have a structure to have contested the election.
Meanwhile, Akpabio has declared the seats of David Umahi (Ebonyi-South) and Ibrahim Giadam (Yobe-East) vacant, following their appointments as ministers.
Akpabio said the declaration of vacancies in their seats was in accordance with section 68, sub-section (1)(d) of the 1999 Constitution.
He, therefore, called on INEC to commence the process of by-elections in the two senatorial districts immediately.