PDP screens out two aspirant for Ondo guber primaries

Two aspirants on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party for the Ondo state gubernatorial primaries slated for July 22 -23  have been disqualified by the Chairman of the screening committee, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.

Speaking with journalists at the party Secretariat, Dogara said the committee screened out two aspirants who failed to meet the criteria given the committee by the party.

Nine aspirants appeared before the PDP screening committee in the two days screening exercise that lasted into the night.

Aspirants for the July 22nd, PDP Governorship Primaries include, Eyitayo Jegede; Sen. Boluwaji Kunlere and Deputy Governor of Ondo state Dr Agboola Ajayi.

Others are; Dr Eddy Olafeso, Ben Banji Okunomo, Bode Ayorinde, Otunba Bamidele Akingboye, Mr Godday Erewa and  Barr. Sola Ebiseeni.

Pressed to mention the names of those disqualified, the former speaker of the House of Representatives declined walked into his car and left.

He said while they are screened out, they have the right to approach the appeal committee which sits on Monday to appeal their cases.

He maintained that the committee was thorough to ensure that the outcome of the screening would stand the test of time globally.

His words: “The intention is that anybody who passed through the screening would have almost like a bankable case that cannot be challenged anywhere.

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“So we have critically and analytically looked at all the claims made in all the documents submitted to us and I am happy to announce to you that we have completed the assignment and provisional certificate of clearance has been signed by the committee.

“It will be distributed to the candidates right now some of them who are here collecting their certificates. Unfortunately, in this case, I am not happy to report this to you that two aspirants failed the litmus test.

“That is not to say that they have been disqualified because we don’t have the powers to disqualify anybody.

“There’s still the opportunity of redress at the appeal panel, which will sit on Monday.

“So if any of the two candidates that didn’t pass screening feels that maybe some kind of miscarriage of Justice was done like they have the opportunity to appeal in the court, he is entitled to launch that appeal from now onwards.

Explaining how detailed they worked the task given to the committee by the national working committee (NWC) of the party, Dogara said “We started this work yesterday.

“You saw the number of hours we took to painstakingly go through every claim made by the aspirants and the documents they submitted, unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish yesterday becaus we didn’t complete the assignment.

We adjourned at about 10:30 p.m. Last night and then we reconvened at about 1:00 p.m. Today that gave us the opportunity to further grill the candidates like we said we started yesterday,” he said.

Meanwhile, the PDP has picked Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike to lead its governorship campaign in Edo State.

The national publicity secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, who disclosed this on his twitter handled, also revealed that Governor Ahmadu Fintri of Adamawa State will serve as deputy for the campaign.

Wike’s leadership of PDP’s campaign for the Edo election comes barely weeks after he disassociated himself from PDP’s reconciliation process to enabled Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, emerge the consensus candidate of the party.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE