Gov. Lalong’s loss of senatorial contest, Plateau’s loss – APC’s spokesman

Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Plateau, Mr Sylvanus Namang, says the defeat of Gov. Simon Lalong at the Feb. 25 National Assembly election was a huge loss to the state.

Namang told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Jos that defeat was not a personal loss of the governor.

He said if Lalong had been elected, he would have been a ranking member in the Senate having served as Speaker of the Plateau House Assembly for seven years.

“Those who did this to the governor will regret it because he has nothing to lose. With the emergence of Sen. Bola Tinubu as president, Lalong would have been considered first in considerations for Plateau.

“They have allowed certain sentiments to overwhelm them and that is not good for us as a state.

“Lalong was to go the National Assembly as ranking member and as ranking member could have been Senate president or Senate leader, but we have lost everything to sentiments.

“As far as we are concerned Gov. Lalong’s loss was not a personal loss, but a loss to the entire state,’’ Namang stressed.

He urged Plateau people to learn to move with the times in order to feature prominently in national politics where there are more gains.

He urged Plateau people to work for the progress of the state rather than picking on individuals.

He argued that it would take four years for a greenhorn to understand the workings of the National Assembly.

The Plateau governor contested for the Plateau South senatorial seat, but was defeated by retired AVM Napoleon Bali of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Bali scored 148,844 votes to Lalong’s 91,674 votes. Lalong is the first two-term governor of Plateau to fail to make it to the Senate.