Yilwatda’s INEC experience added advantage – Sen. Lalong

By Jude Opara, Abuja

Former governor of Plateau State, Sen. Simon Lalong has said that the experience as a former Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nantawe Yilwatda is an added advantage to the ruling party.

Lalong stated this on Thursday when he led some Plateau State APC stakeholders to pay a courtesy call on the National Chairman, at the National Secretariait of the party.

Speaking on what the National Chairman was bringing on board, the former governor said; “he has known the act of election because he has conducted several elections in Nigeria. When you talk about party, you are talking about election. What is it about election that an electoral officer does not know? If he knows, it is an added advantage to this party.

“The APC National Chairman has a rich credentials to pilot the party to success.

Well, you heard what we said. I can’t say that he’s a new person. This is somebody who had gone from REC to contesting election as a governorship candidate.

“He was a REC for four years in Benue, after REC, he was an aspirant and became a candidate of the party. It’s not easy to get nominated as a candidate of the party.

“After being the candidate of the party, he became a Minister of the Federal Republic in the Humanitarian Ministry, he was already working when the issue of the national chairmanship came up.

“Anybody placed in that kind of position, rising to the level of the national chairman, you won’t say that he’s a new person in politics again. He has been part of the executive. He has also been part of the executive working with Mr. President,” he said.

The former Plateau State governor also dismissed the Coalition under African Democratic Congress (ADC), boasting that they can use the trick used by APC to defeat the party.

“If I tell you a secret. I said it would be difficult for people to say you use one trick in overcoming a government and you are using that same trick in overcoming the same party.

“Those were the tricks we used in overthrowing past government and we brought in late President Mohammadu Buhari. After Buhari, we brought in President Tinubu. To say that within that cycle, some people are attempting to do the same thing to achieve a result is not possible. For me, I think it is an exercise in futility, because we were the masters.

“So if you say they are our friends, yes. They are also friends of Mr. President. They are also friends of our past president. They are friends of many politicians that are in APC. Those are friends. But the trick will not remain the same. Because if we said it is like witchcraft, you used a witchcraft and then you gather, you take away somebody and you come back with the same witchcraft to take me, it wouldn’t be possible.

“We would have known all the secrets. So they will not go anywhere.”

Lalong equally described Yilwatda as a bridge between the old and the young, adding that the days of having only a former governor as National Chairman of the APC was gone.

He said, “Now, some people will speaking on his age and maturity. Yes, it used to be that before you become National Chairman, you must have been a governor or former governor. Gone are the days,” he concluded.