Governor Lalong’s Aide Resigns, Set To Challenge Him For 2019 Governorship

BY CHAMBERLAIN ODEY, JOS – Cracks have emerged on the walls of Governor Simon Lalong’s political house as one of his aides on Friday resigned his appointment as Special Assistant to the governor to enable him concentrate and intensify consultations and preparations for the Plateau state Government House occupancy come 2019.
In a correspondence titled; “Letter of Resignation” and dated August 3, 2018, Sabiu Ibrahim Musa urged Governor Lalong to accept the development which he said has to take effect immediately: “Please accept this letter as notice of my resignation from my position as Special Assistant to the Governor of Plateau, Rt Hon Simon Bako Lalong”.
Musa stated further that “my last day of employment would be today, August 3, 2018”, as he recalled that “I received an offer to serve as Special Assistant on the 3rd of April, 2017, and after serving in this
capacity, I feel it is time to resign and concentrate on my new endeavour”.
Confirming the development in a telephone chat, Musa said the letter has already been delivered and received in the Government House, Rayfield office of the Governor of Plateau State.
Reliving his experience as Special Assistant to Governor Lalong, Musa said apart from receiving a salary of N65,000 every month, there was nothing worthwhile about the appointment.
He said since the appointment, as a special assistant to the governor, he never had access to him, and never got to meet with him throughout
the period he served in the government.
“The government has neither been carrying me nor the people I represent along. There is nothing to encourage sense of belonging at all, apart from receiving salary,” Musa lamented.
He recalled that he did much to help stabilise things for the government, saying; “I Have been talking and appealing to my people to cooperate and support the policies and programmes of this government, and appealing to them to show good conscience especially during crisis.

“Remember that this appointment of ‘Special Assistant’ was given also to members of other parties like the Labour Party and others who
stepped down for Lalong before the election. My case was even different because I helped the Lalong government to get legitimacy. As a governorship candidate in the same election, I refused to go with the other Party – the PDP to the tribunal when the INEC clearly omitted my Party’s name and logo from the ballot paper,” Musa narrated, adding that “it was even ungrateful and malicious of Governor Lalong to only consider me for the position of Special Assistant”.
Musa, who as chairman of the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC), Plateau state, transformed into the party’s gubernatorial candidate in the 2015 general elections, suffered a setback at the poll when the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC), omitted his party’s name and logo from the ballot paper.

Musa was coasting home to a mouth-watering offer as the PDP encouraged him to go to the tribunal where the omission would have translated to an outright voiding of the APC/Lalong victory, but
was believed to have been prevailed upon by a telephone call from President Muhammadu Buhari, who urged him to shun the PDP carrot and let Lalong and his victory be.
Musa said in the event where there are no gubernatorial aspirants on the platform of the ADC for the forthcoming 2019 elections, it will be
fight to finish between him and Governor Lalong.