As members petition Ekweremadu’s committee on Anyanwu, Arapaja, Olafeso,other issues
If a court order is issued before the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national convention on October 30th and 31st, the party may remove conflicting delegates from Ekiti and one other state.
Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja, Dr Eddy Olafeso, and others have petitioned the Appeal Subcommittee headed by former Deputy President of the Senate, Ike Ekweremadu, regarding their candidacy.
Ifeanyi Okowa, the Chairman of the Accreditation Subcommittee and Governor of Delta State, spoke to reporters shortly after the meeting of the Accreditation Subcommittee, saying that if there is a court order on conflict delegates, the party will have no choice but to expel those delegates.
He said: “There are no issues concerning delegates election. But in about one or two states, we still have issues, people contending in court as to whether some elected officials at the state should be there. There’s one is Ekiti state and one other state. The legal adviser will before the end of the day offer us advice on it so that we will know what to do. So I don’t think we will have any issue with that.”
On conflicting delegates, he said, “we may likely not have conflicting delegates, but wherever we think that there is a court order, we have no choice than to exit those delegates. Except for the statutory delegates who by their right and positions held in the past are not by reasons of election are suppose to be delegates.”
Addressing newsmen before their meeting, Ekweremadu, who is the Chairman of the Appeal Subcommittee, explained that there is an appeal process for those who are not satisfied with the outcome of the screening committee’s report.
“So, that appeal process is what is taking place today under my leadership, chairman of the screening appeal committee,” he said.
Ekweremadu further explained that the committee is made up of 24-member committee drawn from different parts of the country, adding that they are people with vast knowledge and experience, whom the party believe will be able to correct any injustice if there’s any.
He said: “It is in pursuant of that, that this morning after receiving some complaints that we decided to meet and listen to those complaints.
“On the whole, we received about five appeals, one is in respect of the non clearance of the Deputy National Secretary, by the aspirant himself, Hon. Akintan Kareem.
“There is also a petition in respect of clearance of the Deputy National Youth Leader from Edo state for not being a party member, one Timothy Osadolor.
“One of the petitions is in respect of Usman Sani Shehu, an aspirant for National Youth Leader for forgery of certificates and age falsification.
“We also received an appeal in respect of another aspirant for youth leader, Mohammed Usman for non resignation of current position as a youth leader in his ward.
“We also received the petition against the clearence of Ambassador Taofeek Arapaja as Deputy National Chairman (South) for non resignation of his existing position
“We received three petitions, two of those petitions were in respect of the clearance of Senator Sam Anyanwu as aspirant for National Secretary claiming that he has taking the party to court previously, against the party’s constitution without exploring the internal mechanism of the party for complain.
“There’s also a third petition actually in support of the disqualification of Dr Eddy Olafeso as for aspirant of National Publicity Secretary. But you will note that Dr Eddy did not appeal his non clearance..
“But no matter what is our feelings about those appeals and petitions, what we intend to do as a very responsible body is to listen to all those that have written to us and hear from them, look at the documents before us and possibly we reconvene to look at the presentations and documents and be able to drop a report, which we will send to the party as soon as possible.”
