* Swears in Lalong as senator
Sunday Aborisade in Abuja
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, during plenary on Wednesday, declared vacant the seats of Ebonyi South and Yobe East Senatorial Districts.
The seats became vacant following the appointments of David Umahi and Ibrahim Geidam as Ministers of Work and Police Affairs respectively.
Since their appointments as ministers, the two senatorial districts have been left unrepresented at the upper chamber.
Akpabio, during plenary, called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct bye-elections in the two senatorial districts for representation at the upper chamber.
“INEC may therefore wish to commence the process of conducting bye-elections to fill the vacancies immediately,” the Senate president said.
Meanwhile, former Minister of Labour Employment and Productivity, Simon Lalong, has been sworn in as a member of the 10th Senate.
Lalong was sworn in during plenary by the President of the Senate.
The former governor of Plateau State took the oath of office about 11.57am on the floor of the Senate.
Akpabio immediately congratulated Lalong, a former Governor of Plateau State, and the Director-General of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Campaigns during the 2023 presidential poll that produced President Bola Tinubu.
Lalong will represent Plateau-South on the platform of the APC.
Lalong, a former Speaker of the Plateau State House of Assembly, had tendered his resignation to President Tinubu on Tuesday.
Speaking soon after his inauguration, Lalong said he actually wanted to be a senator after he served his tenure out as governor in May 2023.
“This was my first choice, to be candid,” he stated.
According to him, he opted to hold the position of a minister in the interim and on the invitation of Tinubu because he had a case he was pursuing at the courts.
Lalong promised to do his best to serve his constituents to his human abilities.
Also reacting to the inauguration, the National Chairman of the APC, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, described it as a moment of happiness.
“This is a moment of happiness. We are so happy that he won at the Court of Appeal.
“What Nigerians will expect is good legislation. As we know, the APC has the majority and will work for the prosperity of all Nigerians,” Ganduje added.
The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, had on November 7, upheld the judgment of the lower tribunal, which declared Lalong the winner of the Plateau-South Senatorial District election.
INEC initially declared the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr Napoleon Bali, as the winner.
Bali had scored 148,844 votes, while Lalong recorded 91,674, according to INEC.
Lalong challenged the result on the grounds that the PDP had no proper structures in the state on which a candidate could contest for an election.
