Plateau South Senatorial Election: Tribunal Declares Lalong Winner

The National Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal has declared the immediate past governor of Plateau State, who is now the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr Simon Lalong, as the rightful Senator to represent Plateau South Senatorial District.
The Tribunal on Monday, based its judgement on the premise that the votes garnered by Napoleon Bali in the last Senatorial election were deemed as wasted votes.
According to the tribunal, this was due to Bali’s invalid nomination, as the tribunal noted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had no valid structure in Plateau State at the time of his nomination.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Plateau State has congratulated the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Mr. Lalong, over his victory at the tribunal.
The APC in a statement signed by its State Publicity Secretary, Hon Slyvanus Namang, said the Tribunal based its ruling mainly on ground one of the former Governor’s petition that the Plateau State PDP ought not to have participated in the last general elections as it did not have the legal structure to have validly nominated and fielded candidates for the national elections due to its disobedience of court orders, especially the Justice S. P Gang of Plateau State High Court’s unassailable judgment and directive to the party, to conduct a congress to constitute a legally binding party executive committee, which it bluntly refused to do since 2020.
It pointed out that the judgment was illuminating and put to rest the controversy that PDP has no legally constituted Exco.
“We also want to applaud Justices O. Elekwa and O. A. Adetujoye, who also concurred with the lead judgment. The judgment, we believe is a clear roadmap to better days ahead for the APC in the state in the remaining Plateau Tribunal judgments”, the party said.
The party enjoined its supporters to celebrate the victory at the Tribunal with an utmost sense of decorum as it awaits the remaining judgments for the House of Representatives, House of Assembly and Gubernatorial Election Petitions by the Tribunals sitting in Jos.