- Party pegs forms at N11mn
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Ahead of the Edo State governorship election, four contenders have indicated interest for the ticket of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).
The aspirants are Peter Okoeguale, Rev. Sebastian Iyere, Balogun Engeeleyeme and Pastor Azemhe Azena Friday.
Chairman of the Screening Committee, Abdulrahman Abubakar, during the exercise yesterday in Abuja, said the party pegged its Expression of Interest Form and Nomination of Form at N11 million.
Abubakar expressed confidence that NNPP would repeat the feat in Kano State in Edo State.
According to him, the screening exercise would be thorough as the aspirants would provide needed documents to avoid disqualification from the contest by the party or the court.
“We here for the screening of our aspirants who, by the grace of God, by the profile of our party today, that one of these 4 gentlemen will become the next governor of Edo State.
“We want to chat with them and checklist of what our party requires to make sure that whoever our party selects as the candidate is the person we can take to the bank that he is sellable.
“We will go through the checklist like the nomination form, expression of interest form, academic status, National Youth Service Certificate where applicable and where not applicable the exemption certificate will be required.
“The party’s membership card, the voter’s card, passport photography and membership payment card, will also be screened.
“Our interest is that we should produce the next governor of Edo State. The example we have made in Kano State would also be moved to Edo State by the end of the year.
“The total money paid is N11 million each both expression of interest form and nomination form. We will not extort our aspirants.”
National Publicity Secretary of NNPP, Yakubu Shemdam, said the party would adopt indirect primary.
“You have heard what they have for the people. The process will be transparent. That is why we brought in people of integrity to conduct the screening process.
“We do not want to see what happened in the PDP and APC where different people emerged. We are adopting the indirect primary. We are already electing our delegates.”