Plateau: Lalong dismisses Useni, PDP petitions

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau state has dismissed the petitions filed at the Court of Appeal by the Peoples Democratic Party and its governorship candidate in the 2019 elections in the state, Jeremiah Useni.

The governor described the petition over his reelection in the March 9 governorship election are baseless, adding that it would come to nought.

The petitioners had asked the Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to annul Lalong’s victory on the basis that the governor provided various names like Simon Sule, Simon Sule Lalong; and Sule Simon Bako Lalong during registration at the Independent National Electoral Commission for the 2019 elections.

However, the tribunal in its ruling dismissed Useni and the PDP’s petitions.

Useni and his party had approached the Court of Appeal insisting that the tribune erred and that they were equally not satisfied with the ruling of the lower court.

Accordingly, they said that Lalong was not in the first place qualified to have contested for the governorship election because he supplied false information to INEC in his form CF100.

But reacting Sunday, the governor said in Shendam local government area of the state that the petition like the previous efforts would come to nought.

He spoke on the occasion of honour for his late Uncle, who raised him.

“When my uncle asked my father to release me to him, my father told my uncle that I had become his son. Because of the tradition of love and unity, I bore my uncle’s name, Sule, when he enrolled me in school.

“It was when I finished school that my uncle told me that since I was a grown-up and I am the first male child of my father, I needed to bear his name.

“That was when I did an affidavit to take on my family name of Bako. Unfortunately, my opponents are making an issue of it even when the tribunal rejected their arguments.

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