A five-member screening committee set up by the All Progressive
Congress has disqualified a former member of the House of
Representatives, Uche Ekwunife, from contesting election into the vacant
seat of the Anambra Central Senatorial District.The party selected Sharon Ikeazor, a former interim woman leader of the party, as its candidate in the election.
The court quashed the earlier ruling of the National Assembly
Election Tribunal that Mrs. Ekwunife had won the seat in the March 28,
2015 senatorial election, which she contested as a member of the Peoples
Democratic Party.
The appeal was filed by the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, Victor Umeh.
Following her loss at the appeal court, Mrs. Ekwunife defected to the
APC to contest the rerun since the party’s candidate in the March
election, Chris Ngige, had been appointed the minister of labour.
In its report, the five member-committee chaired by Osita Okechukwu,
said Mrs. Ekwunife and Mrs. Ikeazor, presented themselves for screening.
It said at the end of the exercise, it chose Mrs. Ikeazor to contest
election having “fulfilled Section 4 of 2014 Guidelines for the
Nomination of Candidates for Public Office and all relevant sections of
the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria”.
The panel recounted that Mrs. Ikeazor was a member of the defunct All
Nigeria Peoples Party, woman leader of the defunct Congress for
Progressive Change and woman leader, interim national executive
committee of the All Progressives Congress, as well as a member of its
board of trustees.
“Her trajectory shows loyalty, perseverance and consistency to the emergence of our progressive party,” the panel said.
“In conclusion, she is qualified and therefore we recommend her for
nomination as the candidate of our great party for Anambra State Central
Senatorial District.”
On Mrs. Ekwunife, the committee observed that she was barely two weeks old in the APC.
It noted further, “Most importantly, our deep concern is her record
which showed that she dumps political parties at will, leaving the
parties in its wake factionalized – from the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) to All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), to Progressive Peoples
Alliance (PPA), back to PDP or vice versa and now to APC.
“She is more or less a fair-weather hen therefore her antecedent
contravenes Section 4(3) of the 2014 Guideline for Nomination of
Candidate for Public Office. Caution is valour.
“The score sheet in respect of the aspirants is also attached
herewith for further necessary action. The committee found that Aspirant
Senator Uche Lilian Ekwunife, is ineligible to seek the APC nomination
for the Senatorial election.”
The committee, whose members include Abdullahi Aliyu, Bunmi Oririowo,
Mary Aipoh and Garba Umar (Secretary), said, in carrying out its
assignment , it enquired into the profile of aspirants, integrity and
fulfillment of all the relevant sections of the Constitution of the
Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2010 Electoral Act and Guideline for
Nomination of candidates of our great party, the APC.
It stated, “To aid the committee in its assignment, a score board
analysis of the parameters set out above was made. Members scored all
aspirants on the following basis viz: BioData/Education- 20 Points;
Experience (Public/Private)-20 points; Integrity and Personal Character-
40 points and Party Loyalty and Support-20 Points. The guidelines set a
pass mark of 51 Points for the aspirants.”
No comments:
Post a Comment