The Peoples Democratic Party Governorship Screening Committee for the South-South has concluded its task, having successfully screened 56 aspirants from four states.
The Chairman of the committee and Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, while speaking with newsmen at the end of the exercise on Friday, said the process was hectic but transparent.
Diri disclosed that a total of 57 aspirants from four states were received, but that one of them did not turn up as of Friday evening when the two-day exercise ended.
Meanwhile, a governorship hopeful from Rivers State, Farah Dagogo, was arrested shortly after he arrived at the PDP South-South zonal secretariat in Port Harcourt 24 hours after he was declared wanted by Governor Nyesom Wike.
Diri stated, “This was a tedious but purely democratic, quite transparent and a family affair. And men of integrity in this committee and the panel have done their job with all the details of depth. And now, we have successfully completed our assignment of screening the governorship aspirants in the South-South region of our great party.
“All of them who appeared before us have what it takes, and are indeed among the best in our party across the four states.
“As you are aware, Bayelsa and Edo are off season. So, in the South-South, we have four states, rather than six. And all of those who appeared before us that we have screened, we are sure that whoever emerges as a candidate of our party in each of these states, we are putting our first 11 into the game.
“There were 57 aspirants, but one did not turn up and so we screened 56 aspirants. Rivers State has 17 aspirants, Delta has 15 aspirants, Cross River, 11 aspirants and Akwa Ibom has 14 aspirants,” Diri stated.
The Friday screening, which started about noon, ended at about 4pm, as those screened were unanimous in their view that the exercise was democratic.
On the expectations after the screening, Diri said the party was poised to wrest power from the centre in 2023 and advised the aspirants to exhibit spirit of sportsmanship at the end of the day.
He said, “This is a family affair. Our party is a family. Hitherto people keep jumping from one party to the other.
“It will interest you to note we screened some of them who jumped away and they are back. And they are now our torch bearers, preaching that the PDP is the best. And they have returned to their home.
“As so for me, whether at the end of the day, you win the party primaries or not, we all must remain to support our party and to ensure that we not only support our party but our country in the leadership of this country.”
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