The chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Screening Committee for the Kogi State governorship election, Mr. Bode Mustapha, has given reasons why the seven-man panel cleared all the 28 aspirants vying for the party’s ticket in the November 21 poll, saying they all met the party criteria.
Mustapha disclosed this yesterday while submitting the committee’s report to the APC national organising secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja, ahead of the primary election slated for August 29.
“Having gone through the original documents and certified true copies submitted by the aspirants, we found that their claims therein are correct, thereby meeting the constitutional requirements of the Electoral Act.
“Some of your documents we had to verify by going to WAEC and some by calling the schools you attended. We put it through a process; there was an acid test and we are satisfied that the documents that were submitted by the 28 of you met the constitutional requirements as prescribed by law.
“Based on the above findings, the committee hereby recommends to the party that, having satisfied the requirements contained in the relevant constitutions, laws and guidelines, the aspirants that have subjected themselves to the screening process are considered eligible to contest the primary election coming up in August 2015,’’ Mustapha said.
Meanwhile, the leadership of the APC has expressed hope of winning the Kogi governorship election come November 21 and warned all aspirants to shun violence before and during the exercise.
The warning was given by Izunaso, who said the high number of the aspirants vying for the party’s ticket shows that the Confluence State is ripe for APC.
He noted that having won the three senatorial seats, six out of the nine House of Representatives seats and contributed 75 per cent votes in the last presidential election, the state had fully embraced the party.
Addressing the aspirants, Izunaso said: ‘’The committee went into details in the screening process and has cleared all 28 aspirants. You are required to sign an undertaking.”
