The screening committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has cleared 27 aspirants contesting for positions in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
The screening committee, however, disqualified three other aspirants from contesting for various positions they had aimed at ahead of the October 31st national convention.
Among those disqualified are Prof. Wale Oladipo who had expressed interest in the position of Deputy National Chairman (South); Dr Eddy Olafeso, who was seeking to become the National Publicity Secretary of the party and Chief Okey Muo-Aroh, who was an aspirant for National Secretary was also disqualified.
Announcing the decision, the Chairman of the National Convention Organising Committee, Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State, during the official Media Launch of the 2021 National Convention Logo and Promotional Materials, said the three aspirants were disqualified for taking the party to court.
According to Fintiri, the disqualifed failed to exhaust the internal conflicts resolution mechanism in the party before taking legal steps against the national convention.
In his words, “I want to tell you that the three that could not meet the standard of the screening committee -Dr Olafeso Eddy Eniola, who initially had put his interest to contest for the office of the National Publicity Secretary.
“The other persons are Prof Adewale Abiodun Oladipo and Chief Okey Muo-Aroh. All these have been disqualified for reason that they took the party to the court. Their intention also was to stop the national convention.
“So if you have taken the party to court without exhausting the internal mechanism for settling whatever grievances you have and you tried to stop the convention.
“More so the provision of Section 51 (1)l of our party constitution has clearly spelt out that you must exhaust all the internal conflict resolution mechanism in the party.
“The same constitution of our great party has also made a provision that if you have not exhausted Section 58 (1)l, you can be punished under Section 59 (1)e. So you can see that the screening committee has done what is needful of them.
“You must be disciplined in the party for us to survive. And I think we have to move away from the past as we are trying to open a new chapter for the party”.
