Lalong Receives Certificate Of Return, May Resign As Tinubu’s Minister

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, may resign from the cabinet of President Bola Tinubu.

This comes after the Minister collected his Certificate of Return from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Naija News recalls that the Court of Appeal recently sacked Peoples Democratic Party’s Bali Napoleon and declared Lalong as the Senator for Plateau South Senatorial district.

The three-man panel of the Appeal Court led by Justice Williams Daudu affirmed the decision of the Tribunal regarding the election’s outcome.

INEC had declared Senator Napoleon Bali of the PDP as the winner of the original poll.

But the National Assembly and State Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Jos had, on September 11, declared Lalong, who contested on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the Senator-elect representing Plateau South, and sacked Bali based on irregularities in the PDP primaries that produced him.

The Tribunal had cited faulted PDP’s failure to obey a Jos High Court order which directed the party to mandatorily conduct ward congresses as the reason for ruling in favour of Lalong and APC, which filed a petition against the election outcome.

The Appellate Court held that the 1999 Constitution states that all authorities and persons are expected to comply with orders and judgements of a court, but the PDP failed to hold a valid congress.