….PDP to hold 3-man delegate congress for Ebonyi, Thursday
By Myke Uzendu, Abuja
There are strong indications that the disqualification of Nwachukwu Anakwenze and Cosmos Ndukwe by the Presidential Screening Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been upheld by the Appeals committee.
The party’s screening committee chaired by Sen. David Mark Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had last week announced the disqualification of the duo from participating in the Presidential primary election of the party.
Although the Screening committee did not disclose the reasons why they were disqualified, The AUTHORITY learnt that Ndukwe was disqualified for taking the party to court.
The former Commissioner of Trade and Investment in Abia State, Hon. Cosmos Ndukwe, had dragged PDP and Chairman of its Primary Election Planning Committee and National Secretary of the party, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, and others before a Federal High Court in Abuja praying that the party’s primary election should not be held.
His grouse was premised on the alleged refusal of PDP to zone its presidential ticket the to South East geo- political zone.In an originating summons marked FHC/ABJ/CS/508/2022, Ndukwe filed an ex-parte application for an order to restrain PDP from going ahead with the primary election until his suit has been fully determined.
It is however unclear why Anakwenze was disqualified from participating in the party’s primary elections.
But the duo appeared before the Presidential Appeals committee chaired by the National Chairman of the party, Sen. Iyorchia Ayu. The AUTHORITY further learnt that both candidates could not convince the appeals committee beyond all reasonable doubt, why the decision of the screening committee should be thrown away.
Attempts to reach the National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Hon. Debo Ologunagba to give more insight on the disqualification of Anakwenze was unsuccessful as he did not pick his phone calls.
Meanwhile, the party has announced that the 3-man Ad-Hoc Delegate Congress in Ebonyi State purportedly held on Wednesday, May 4, 2022 is null and void and as such unrecognized.
This is because such Congresses are by law, subject to be monitored by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), which in this case, was not available to monitor the exercise, Ologunagba said.
“Based on the unavailability of INEC to monitor the exercise today, Wednesday, May 4, 2022, the NWC rescheduled the conduct of the 3-man Ad-Hoc Delegates Congress in Ebonyi State for Thursday, May 5, 2022.
“All members of our Party in Ebonyi State should therefore discountenance any exercise conducted on Wednesday May 4, 2022 as the PDP 3-man Ad-Hoc Delegates Congress in Ebonyi State will duly hold on Thursday, May 5 2022”.
The party also approved the postponement of the Party’s Local Government Congress to elect one LGA National Delegate earlier scheduled for Thursday, May 5, 2022.
The party said that a new date for the LGA Congress will be announced in due course.
