The national leadership of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday ordered the transfer of the screening of aspirants in the 2011 general elections in Enugu State to Abuja due to poor security situation in the state.
This is just as the party deferred the appeal by some gubernatorial aspirants earlier scheduled for yesterday.
The national organising secretary of party, Uche Secondus said in a statement in Abuja that the security situation arose as a result of the inability to hold the exercise few days ago.
Mr Secondus said though the screening of some of the aspirants to the state House of Assembly and the appeal have taken place, those who missed the exercise should report at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja for the exercise.
Mr Secondus also said the screening of the National Assembly aspirants will take place between December 29 and 30, 2010 at the national secretariat.
“We hereby enjoin all State Assembly aspirants who are yet to present themselves before their committee to do so immediately,” he said. “These arrangements are done in view of the security situation in Enugu State arising from the botched screening exercise.” It will be recalled that the Enugu State chapter of the party was one of the eight state chapters which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said the elections of the state executive committees were inconclusive.
As a result, the party’s National Chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, who incidentally is a former governor of Enugu State, ordered the dissolution of the state executive committee led by Vitalis Abba, last October.
The chairman’s action, however, pitted him against the state governor, Sullivan Chime and the dissolved executive members, who not only accused him of acting unilaterally, but also challenged the dissolution in court.
There have been attempts to reconcile Messrs Nwodo and Chime. Last Friday, the governor visited the national chairman in his office in Abuja during which they held discussions for hours.
The transfer of the screening to Abuja, it was learnt, was not unconnected with the discussion both men had.
Meanwhile, the hearing of the appeal filed by some aspirants in others states were also held as scheduled yesterday.
Out of all the governorship aspirants that appeal the decision of the committees that went round the zones to screen the aspirants before the Tunde Ogbeha led committee; those that were cleared include Obiora Ene of Enugu state, Anayo Onwuegbu of Abia, Ben
Fiabema of Rivers, Moore Chinedu of Rivers, Imoh Udo of Akwa Ibom and Peremobowei Ebebi.
Those that were not cleared are Ike Ibe of Enugu, A. Atuloma of Abia, Suleiman Hunkoyi of Kaduna, Adamiu Suleiman of Kano, and Frank Daniel of Akwa Ibom. They were claimed not to be cleared because of not meeting up with tax requirement and not paying tax at when due or incomplete tax payment.
Also on Monday, Mr Nwodo reportedly met with the two factions of the PDP in Oyo State as part of the effort to reconcile them.
This is coming a few days after President Goodluck Jonathan and his deputy, Namadi Sambo visited the South West geo-political zone.
In attendance were some members of the National Assembly from the state, state lawmakers and other stakeholders.
But the Governor, Adebayo Alao-Akala was not present at the meeting.
Dotun Oyelade, the governor’s senior adviser on public communications, explained that Mr Alao-Akala did not attend because it would be demeaning for him to do so.
“We understand that some disgruntled so-called members of PDP from Oyo State came to Abuja for a meeting to resolves issues. We insist that as far as Oyo is concerned we are poised for the April election.
“In any case, the cat is already let out of the bag when the so called leaders said it is a taboo for any governor to aspire to rule Oyo State twice as if a myopic norm is a product of the constitution. To grace such meetings with our presence is demeaning and an insult to the founding fathers of our great party.
Let them fight the popularity battle here not in Abuja,” the statement said.
When contacted on the matter, a member of the House of Representative, Depo Oyedokun refused to comment.
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