TheCable

Simon Lalong, governor of Plateau state on Monday said Bola Tinubu, former governor of Lagos state, could not attend the mega rally of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akure, Ondo state capital, due to ill-health.

Lalong, who is the chairman of Ondo APC governorship campaign council, made this known during an interactive session with state house correspondents after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said governors of the party, who were absent at the rally, had sent in their apologies.

President Muhammadu Buhari, Senate President Bukola Saraki, and other prominent members of the party, attended the rally, which had Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state as the only governor from the south-west.

Governors of Imo, Kano, Kogi, Jigawa, Nasarawa and Edo states also attended the rally.

Accompanied by Kayode Fayemi, minister of mines and steel development, Lalong explained that all the prominent APC personalities, who failed to attend the rally, had offered “useful and convincing explanations”.

“We have explained their absence. They sent in their apologies. You heard what happened there,” he said.

“As far as we are concerned, the president, who is the leader of the party, was at the rally. The national chairman was also there, as far as we are concerned, everybody was there.

“If a leader was not there and he said he was not there because of ill-health, we pray that God will heal him.”

Lalong said he was in the villa to thank the president for his presence at the event.

Tinubu had opposed the emergence of Rotimi Akeredolu as the flagbearer of the party.

He demanded the resignation of John Odigie-Oyegun, national chairman of the party, over his refusal to follow the recommendation of the panel, which sought the annulment of the process through which Akeredolu emerged.

Oyegun, however, dismissed the call, saying the party’s primary election was free and fair.