The Screening Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Anambra State Governorship Election has said the judgment of the Supreme Court on academic qualifications was the basic guideline used in the screening of the 16 governorship aspirants of the party. The Chairman of the panel, former Governor of Kogi State, Captain Idris Wada, disclosed this to journalists after the screening of the aspirants yesterday at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja.
He said all current Supreme Court decisions and pronouncements of the judiciary on litigations relating to documentation of candidates were taken into consideration in its ongoing screening exercise. Responding to questions on a situation where some party candidates were disqualified after primaries or elections, Wada said the committee was mindful of such decisions, hence, it could not leave any chance for any negligence that could affect the party in the election.
According to him, “We have been guided by the Supreme Court and judiciary decisions as well as pronouncements and other experiences.
“Whatever had happened in the past had guided the National Working Committee (NWC) in laying out the documentation for this exercise in order to overcome such challenges like you have mentioned.
“So, in this exercise, all current decisions of the Supreme Court and other courts of our land have been taken into account in verifying the documentation of our aspirants.
“This is to ensure that whoever emerges as our candidate will not be failed or disqualified on the basis of poor documentation.”
Wada said the screening committee had been thorough and detailed in the examination of the various documentation and verifications of the original document presented based on the nomination forms.
He added that the party was also impressed by the innovations made by NWC to assist the screening panel on the exercise.
“The way the forms were designed and the documentations were laid out has facilitated the work that we have done.
“We are very impressed by the documentation presented by our aspirants.
“So, far we are satisfied by what we have seen, and it shows that our party will end up with a quality candidate for the gubernatorial election,” he said.
So far, the committee has screened 16 governorship aspirants. One of the aspirants is a former Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Works, Chief Chuma Nzeribe.
Nzeribe, who fielded questions after his screening, said the exercise was thorough and members of the committee were professional in their approach.
However, speaking on his chances of winning the June governorship primary election, Nzeribe said there was no longer a godfather issue before an aspirant could win or become the governorship candidate of the party.