The Peoples Democratic Party screening committee, Wednesday, cleared former Kogi State governor, Captain Idris Wada (retd), Senator Dino Melaye and Abubakar Idris for the September 3 governorship primaries ahead of the November 16 election in the state.
Also cleared were the trio of former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Timi Alaibe, Secretary to the Bayelsa State Government, Kemela Okara and Chief of Staff to Governor Seriake Dickson, Talford Ongolo for the Bayelsa state gubernatorial primaries.
At a brief ceremony at the party’s Presidential campaign headquarters, Abuja where the aspirants were handed certificates of clearance, national chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus tasked them to reach out to the delegates with their sundry blueprints, with which they intend to win the support of the people.
Secondus who pledged a level playing field for all aspirants added that the days of impunity and imposition were over even as he noted that the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP he chairs, had no preferred candidate among the legion of aspirants.
“None of you should rely on the National Working Committee or any leader of this party for that matter. As you are aware, the NWC has no preferred candidate. On September 3, this party will conduct a transparent primary election for both the Kogi and Bayelsa states and as such, there will be no compromise,” he said.
He urged them to work hard in the interest of the party, even as he reminded them that at the end of the day, only one of them would emerge candidate for the respective states. He tasked them to learn from the PDP Presidential primaries which held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital and how all eleven aspirants embraced the winner, Atiku Abubakar without rancour, in line with their earlier pledge.
Aminu Suleiman, Musa Wada, Princess Iye Grace Adejoh and Erico Joseph Ameh are some of the aspirants seeking the sole ticket of the PDP in Kogi state while the likes of Kanebi Okoko, Franklin Osaisai, Senator Emmanuel Paulker and Ambassador Godknows Igali among others are contesting the Bayelsa ticket.
While Kogi state has a total of thirteen (13) aspirants, twenty-one (21) aspirants are vying to succeed Bayelsa outgoing governor in the November 16 election.
