THE All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) has shelved the screening of its presidential aspirants till May 23.
National Organising Secretary of the party, Sulaiman Argungu, made the disclosure on Saturday, while inaugurating the committee for the screening of aspirants for the governorship and senatorial tickets of the party.
Argungu gave the number of governorship aspirants seeking the party’s tickets in their respective states across the country as 145, while 351 aspirants would face screening panels for Senate tickets.
Investigations revealed that the screening of the was earlier fixed simultaneously for this weekend along with governorship and National Assembly aspirants. Argungu, who gave a new date of May 23, did not give any reason for the shift in date.
He said: “The screening of the 28 presidential aspirants will now hold on the 23rd of May. Some of them have started to withdraw from the race, but their screening will now be on the 23rd,” Arugungu told newsmen at the inauguration.
A party source, however, alleged that the shift in date was to accommodate a former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, who is out of the country but has to be present for screening.
A Fulani group, Nomadic Pastoralists and Almajarai community led by IbrahimlAbdullahi reportedly purchased the nomination forms for the former president.
While Jonathan’s media aide had declared that he was not interested in the APC ticket, it was later confirmed that he had actually registered as a member of the ruling party in his in Ogbia Ward 13 in Ogbia Local Government Area in Bayelsa State.
Investigation revealed that only 25 aspirants actually returned their nomination forms, out of the 28 that purchased the forms.
Further checks revealed that while the former Anambra State governor and Minister of Labour and Productivity, Senator Chris pulled out of the race, the governor of Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele did not also return his form.
Inaugurating the screening committees for both governorship and National Assembly, Deputy National Chairman (North), Senator Abubakar Kyari, who represented the APC National Chairman, appealed to the panels to be thorough and transparent in the assignment they have been saddled with.
He said: “I’m sure most of you have been through this before. And I’m sure when you look around you, look to your left, you look to your right, you will see amongst and around you somebody who is full of integrity and somebody who is here as a result of merit.
“We have a very strong party; we have a big party. And we’re committed that we deliver the right candidates for the forthcoming elections. We have no doubt that the distinguished ladies and gentlemen assembled here will do just that.
“I wouldn’t want to go into details because we all know ourselves, and we have tried to engage you in a manner that you will also bring your experience to the fore.
“With this, I don’t want to take much of our time. I’d like to welcome you to this auspicious event. And I know there’s a long long hurdle ahead of all of us, like I said, this is not the first time we’re exposed to this either as a panelist or as an aspirant through the process of screening and sometimes into the wee hours of the morning. I would like to at this point plead with you to be patient, screen thoroughly so that we can have the best of the best.”