…Screening committee drills aspirants
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has directed the inaugurated Screening Committee for the Ondo State governorship primary election to allow lawmakers, incumbent governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa and its National Vice Chairman South West, Isaacs Kekemeke, participating in the exercise, to bow and go during the screening.
APC Deputy National Organising Secretary, Nze Chidi Duru, gave the directive while inaugurating the Screening and Appeal Committees ahead of the next Saturday’s State governorship primary.
Addressing the committees, Duru said: “We always have tradition. Our tradition is that if there is a member of the National Assembly and it also goes to the executive governors that come before you, our tradition allows them to take a bow. So we must extend that courtesy.
“If any member of the National Assembly, a former governor, comes before actually admitting, let him do his interview and then leave while you continue the screening. Of those of them who bought their forms, I think there are about three or four who are members of the parliament, two are current and one is an ex-colleague,” Duru directed.
Speaking further, he said: “It is important to stress the fact to the screening committee that the exercise you are asked to perform on behalf of the party will be undertaken with necessary diligence, discipline, of course, friendliness that the work requires. Unfortunately and I don’t envy you.
“It was meant to be a two-day exercise, only because an additional day was added to the national holiday. So we have to compress the two days into one day. This means that you will work round the clock to be able to complete the exercise within the timeframe that we have projected. We also have to lean a basket of the aspirants into definite categories, to enable it to be flawless and smooth sailing and enable the work to be more reasonably organised.
“It’s important again to stress that the work of the Appeal Committee only starts when the Screening Committee has finished their work. It is important that when they finish your work within the time frame allowed, they can hand over their report, not just the documents, you hand over your report. “For us the secretariat, we will also help you to midwife most of the things that will be required and then hand it over to the Appeal Committee that will start their work tomorrow, when they complete their work, we can then get the clearance otherwise, to the candidates. So the work is intertwined,” he said.