Information seeping in from Jos indicates that Governor Simon Lalong has finalized his move into the newly built Government House at Little Rayfield, Jos.

The new Government house which was constructed by the administration of Da. Jonah Jang at the costs of 15 Billion was finalised just ahead of the handover and commissioned by Jang 2 days before vacating office on May 29^th 2015.

Simon Lalong has initially stated that he’d not move into the new Government House because of the moral burden of the high cost of construction, which he said was unjustified and averred that he’d rather govern the state from the old Government House in Rayfield.

It remains unclear why there has been a change of heart, but this may largely be related to the fact that the old government house may be in need of major uplift and renovation –a task which the government may not be ready to undertake because of financial challenges.

Our source within the Government House reports that Lalong began moving his personal effects to the official residence on Wednesday 5^th August and completed the move by Saturday 8^th August 2015.

It would be recalled that Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state, having taken over from Chief Joshua Dariye, turned down the opportunity to move into the Rayfield Government house and instead governed the state from his house.

Simon Lalong similarly may have sought to tag along similar lines, by distancing himself from the high cost project, given the rife animosity between himself and his predecessor, but may have come alive to the practicalities of the financial challenges of the state.

Even so, some House of Assembly members passed a resolution compelling the governor to move into the new Government House. They argued that, given that the past administration has already built, which is befitting and grand -it made logical sense to utilize it as opposed to renovating another at exorbitant costs.

After the resolution, several people argued that the ruling was sponsored by the Governor himself, in order to save himself the embarrassment of seeming like he was going back over his word, but no evidence of such sponsorship by the Governor himself is evident.

count | 888

Lalong moves into Little Rayfield Government House, after initially turning it down