Senate Or Minister: I’m Seriously Confused – Says Tinubu’s Appointee
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, has said he has yet to decide whether to take his seat at the Senate or remain as a minister.
He said he is confronted with indecision on the issue.
In November, the Court of Appeal in Abuja, sacked Napoleon Bali of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as senator representing Plateau South on the ground that he was not properly nominated as candidate of the party for the 25 February election.
A three-member panel of the Appeal Court led by Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu declared Mr Lalong as the authentic winner of the election.
The court thereafter, ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to issue a certificate of return to Mr Lalong, who was already serving as a minister.
INEC subsequently presented the certificate of return to Mr Lalong in Abuja, a situation that suggested that the minister might be set to quit his ministerial position to become a federal lawmaker.
But, in a video circulating on the Internet by an online TV, SYMFONI, Mr Lalong was seeing addressing, presumably an audience made up persons connected to the labour movement and the ministry of labour, that he was confused and could not determine whether or not to take his seat at the Senate or remain a minister.
In the video, urged his listeners to pray for him so that he could make the right decision.
“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 (Adams) 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,” the labour minister said.
Mr Lalong is the immediate-past governor of Plateau State. He once served as the speaker of the state House of Assembly.
He served as the Director General of the APC Presidential Campaign in the February election that brought President Bola Tinubu to office.
