By Kingsley Chukwuka
Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State has hinted that he will not support a northern candidate in the coming 2023 general elections.
Lalong said no northern candidate jostling to become president today has ever supported Plateau State before and after he became governor.
Lalong stated this at the weekend when the former Minister of Transportation, Hon. Chibike Amaechi visited Plateau, seeking to woo APC party delegates’ votes in the coming party Presidential primary election.
According to him: “I will support Amaechi because he is the only person that stood by us when the PDP threw us out. In 2014, we were in PDP, we were chased out. When APC came, we were running around, we wanted to join APC, many people that are today coming to Plateau, said they would not admit Plateau people into APC.
“I ran round, you were in PDP, you said we should go and join APC, and we came back to join APC, they were chasing us round, you gave us the support to do registration. When we registered and we were going into the election, many people that are Presidential aspirants today, I went to all of them, I said we have APC on the Plateau and they said ‘no we will not go anywhere. when they put up the question for registration, nobody gave it to us, even in Northern Nigeria.
“That is why I stand on the fact today in my State that because of what you did, I will not support a Northern Candidate. I remember what you did when you came to APC, you said we must do more registration because you said you believed in President Buhari and you took five other Governors and came to APC, that was when we were allowed to come in as APC members.
“You assisted each of the Northern States to do registration for the APC and we updated our registration. When we came back to Plateau to contest the general election, nobody supported us, but you did. I was the Governor and I was a candidate but you said no, as a friend, I like Plateau people and I must do my best. You invested in Plateau people and out of nowhere, we won the election. Not only myself, we have many members in the House of Assembly, we have members in the National Assembly. Something that nobody gave to us, you gave to us.
“Even as Minister of Transportation you have continued to assist Plateau, most of the projects we have today from the Federal Government were facilitated by you and this is why Plateau delegates will vote only for you in the coming party Presidential primary election”, Lalong said.
Our correspondent reports that the Governor and Plateau delegates unanimously adopted Amaechi as the sole candidate for the 2023 Presidential primary election.