Campaign DG: My appointment not compensation for losing VP slot – Lalong

The Plateau State governor, Simon Lalong, has explained how he emerged as the director-general of the campaign organisation of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Tinubu.

Lalong said that contrary to insinuations in some quarters, his appointment was not a compensation to the Christian communities in the North for losing out on the vice presidential slot.

Addressing journalists in Abuja as part of efforts to showcase his achievements in office and denounce the widely held view that he was chosen to lead the APC campaign because of the issue surrounding the Muslim-Muslim ticket of the party, Lalong said it was the Progressives Governors Forum (NGF) that chose him because of his strategic position as its chairman.

Narrating what actually happened, the governor said that after the candidate of the party nominated his running mate, the APC governors met him to discuss the way forward.

He said the governors told Tinubu that they fought for the presidency to move to the South and expected to be consulted on the vice presidential candidate and director-general of the campaign council.

“They all agreed that I should lead the campaign because I am the chairman of the NGF and also because I was the one who took them to the president to argue that presidency must go to the South. So I am seen as a rallying point. It was not part of religious consideration,” he said.