POLITICS
Running Mate: PDP Group Faults Voting by Screening Committee
The South-South Vanguard of the Peoples Democratic Party (SSV-PDP) has faulted the voting by the screening committee set up to nominate candidates for running mate to the presidential standard-bearer, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Mr Alfred Eboziem, the Zonal Coordinator of the group, said this in a statement on Wednesday in Lagos.
SSV-PDP is a coalition of young members with focus on grassroots mobilisation and membership drive within the South-South zone.
Eboziem said that the narrative that the 17-member committee voted 14-3 in favour of Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, as nominee for running mate was wrong.
He said that the committee’s mandate was to nominate three persons and not to narrow the choice to one person through voting.
”If the committee voted as is being said, then it was wrong to have done so because that would mean over-stepping the brief given to it,” he said.
Eboziem also faulted claims by some committee members that Atiku and the PDP leadership went against the recommendation of the committee.
He said that both Atiku and the leadership of the party were clear on the mandate of the committee, which was to narrow the list to three names from which the presidential standard bearer would make his choice, as demanded by the constitution.
”We have watched the evolving narrative surrounding the choice of Dr Ifeanyi Okowa as the running mate to our presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar,” Eboziem said.
According to him, while the group acknowledges that the arguments, back and forth, are elements of democracy and show that democracy is alive and well in the party, it is necessary to correct certain misconceptions.
”As young members of our party who look up to the party leadership for direction and guidance, we want to publicly appeal to our dedicated elders in the party including Governors Wike, Samuel Ortom of Benue and other aggrieved party faithful.
”They should close ranks and forge the type of iron-cast unity that would see our party victorious in 2023.
”We have noticed that some non-PDP members are the ones crying more than the bereaved, by sustaining a totally untrue narrative that the screening committee was asked by the party leadership to produce a running mate for Atiku.
”This is a wrong premise to stand their argument of injustice because the brief from the party leadership and Atiku was for the committee to submit three names.
”At no point would the party and Atiku have asked any committee or individual to produce the running mate, when the constitution has clearly spelt out the process of picking a running mate,” he said.
The zonal coordinator quoted Section 142 (1) of the 1999 constitution as amended as the guiding principle of the party.
It says: ”In any election to which the foregoing provisions of this Part of this Chapter relate, a candidate for an election to the office of President shall not be deemed to be validly nominated unless he nominates another candidate as his associate from the same political party for his running for the office of President, who is to occupy the office of Vice-President.
”And that candidate shall be deemed to have been duly elected to the office of Vice-President if the candidate for an election to the office of President, who nominated him as such associate is duly elected as President in accordance with the provisions aforesaid”.
He said that even the constitution forbade any committee, party leadership or individual order than the presidential candidate from picking a running mate.
According to him, that honour belongs solely to the presidential candidate, and Atiku, having chosen Delta Governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa as running mate, deserves to be commended for heeding the provisions of the constitution. (NAN)
The Abia Chapter of the INEC Staff Welfare Association (ISWA) has warned its members to uphold the integrity of the commission and guard against the culture of manipulating election results.
The Abia Chairman of the association, Mr Collins Eze, gave the advice at the group’s general meeting and end-of-year party in Umuahia.
Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the sideline of the ceremony, Eze said that the staff members were adequately aware of their enormous responsibility and should ensure free, fair and credible elections.
He said: “We have also told our colleagues that anywhere they find themselves they should make sure that they do the needful by ensuring transparency in the conduct of elections.
“We have always told them not to allow anybody to induce them with money to manipulate election results.
“I’m happy that they have been building the capacity of our colleagues on election processes.
“So, in the coming years, we won’t have any problem in ensuring free, fair and peaceful elections.”
He said that the end-of-year party was special as it afforded them the opportunity “to wine and dine together as well as thank God for sustaining them in 2024”.
Eze said that his leadership had introduced various means of assisting members in dire financial needs by providing platforms to solicit suppory for them.
He expressed gratitude to members for their support and cooperation, describing them as the “secret behind the success of this administration”.
He said that 34 of at least 350 staff members of the commission in the state retired from service in 2024.
According to him, the development has placed a huge financial burden on the association, in terms of their welfare and entitlement as members.
Report says that each member received a carton of tomato paste as Christmas gift from the association. (NAN)
A chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has told the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to be thankful to God that its 16-year administration was not probed by the successive APC-led governments.Okechukwu stated this on Tuesday in Abuja, while reacting to a statement by PDP congratulating Ghanaians for the conduct of free, fair and transparent general elections.
Report says that PDP had, in a statement, said that the verdict of the people of Ghana in the presidential election was a signal to the APC that its days were numbered. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, had said in the statement that the power of the people in Nigeria, just like in Ghana, would ‘surely prevail and end the APC’s oppressive rule’.This, he said, would “return Nigeria to the path of good governance, security, political stability and economic prosperity on the platform of the PDP in 2027.”However, in his reactions to Ologunagba’s statement, Okechukwu said that the PDP clan should thank God that former President Muhammadu Buhari and President Bola Tinubu, out of sheer statesmanship, had refused to probe ‘the 16 locus years of PDP administrations’.Okechukwu, a former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), described the 16 years of PDP administrations as ones full of squandering and lack of plan.He said that Nigeria had yet to recover from the humongous culture of impunity and trust deficit planted by PDP on the Nigerian soil.Okechukwu said corruption was among the culture of impunity, saying it governed the privatisation of Nigeria’s electricity value chain, a key element in the country’s industrialisation drive.“Another is the blatant rigging of the 2007 general elections which the foremost beneficiary, President Umaru Yar’Adua, out of good conscience and noble magnanimity, publicly acknowledged the malfeasance which characterised his victory,” he said.Okechukwu also mentioned what he called conscienceless sale of the legislative and ministerial quarters, the annual rentage of which, he said, was bleeding the country’s treasury.“Another one is the neglect of $23 billion Greenfield Refinery, which could have saved over $70 billion expended on importation of refined petroleum products and which simulated the economic hardship of today,” he said.On why, for nine years, the APC administration could not fix those challenges, he recalled the efforts made by the Buhari administration to reopen talks on the Greenfield Refinery which, according to him, the Chinese regrettably rebuffed.The former VON director-general said that Nigerians were not in a hurry to forget the deliberate breach of the rotational convention of president from the north to the south.He said that the country could not also forget the utter disregard for Section 7 of the PDP’s constitution which expressly mandated zoning.Okechukwu advised the PDP not to insult the sensibilities of Nigerians by assuming that citizens would easily forget how they were put in the harms way.He said that PDP should thank God that Buhari and Tinubu did not want to probe them, adding “that’s why Nigerians cannot decipher the difference between the two political parties.” (NAN)
Sen. Ned Nwoko (PDP-Delta) says that Local Government Administration is central to democracy in Nigeria as it ensures grassroots governance and service delivery at the local level.This is contained in a statement signed by Dr Michael Nwoko, the Chief of Staff to the lawmaker in Abuja on Monday.Nwoko said this on the occasion of the presentation of an award “Icon of Hope” to him by the Association of Local Government Vice Chairmen of Nigeria (ALGOVC).
He was represented by his Chief of Staff. He said that the importance of local government administration in the country could not be overemphasised, as it was the bedrock of democracy.According to him, local governments in Nigeria play key roles in the country’s democracy by promoting participatory democracy, providing services, and representing citizens.“Local Governments help determine local needs and how to meet them. They also act as a link between the centre, state, and local people.“They are created to decentralise power and bring the government closer to the people. They perform both mandatory and concurrent functions.“It is in view of this that I took it upon myself to enhance the viability of local governments through the Paris and London club loan refunds,”he said.Dr Folashade Olabanji-Oba, ALGOVC National Chairman, while presenting the award at its 7th Annual National Conference, said the award was in recognition of the lawmaker’s significant contributions to strengthening local government administration.She highlighted Nwoko’s critical role in ensuring the Paris and London Club loan refunds, a financial breakthrough she said enhanced the capacity of local governments nationwide.(NAN)
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