Tinubu's campaign director-general Governor Simon Lalong floored in Plateau senatorial race

GOVERNOR Simon Lalong of Plateau State has suffered an embarrassing defeat in his quest to go to the National Assembly after he lost the race for the Plateau South Senatorial District seat to Retired Air Vice-Marshal Napoleon Bali of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP).

First elected in 2015, Governor Lalong was returned for a second term in 2019 and no longer eligible to stand, he has planned to become a senator. One of the most high profile members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Governor Lalong is the chairman of the Northern State Governors Forum and the director-general of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu's APC Presidential Campaign Council.

With counting completed in the Plateau South Senatorial District elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) has declared Air Vice Marshal Bali the senator-elect. Professor Meshak Goyit, the returning officer, revealed that Senator-elect Bali scored a total of 148,844 votes to Governor Lalong's 91,674 votes, while Tobias Nda of the Labour Party scored 17,325 votes.

Declaring the results in Shendam Local Government Area today, Professor Goyit, provided a breakdown of the results indicating that Air Vice Marshal Bali defeated Governor Lalong in five out of the six local governments in the senatorial zone. This included Governor Lalong’s Shendam Local Government Area, as well as the incumbent local government chairman’s Shimankar Ward.

Air Vice Marshal Bali floored Senator Lalong with a wide margin in Quaan-Pan, Shendam, Mikang, Langtang North  and Langtang South local government areas. He only lost to the governor only in Wase, where deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Idris Wase, holds sway.