The Newswriter authoritatively gathered that, last week, seventy five (75) aspirants eyeing various constituency seats in the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) on the platform of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP went home disappointed as the screening panel disqualified them from contesting the November, 28, 2014 primary.
No fewer than one hundred and thirty five (135) aspirants picked the party’s intent and nomination forms to contest, however, they were not been able to scale through the hurdles during the screening.
A member of the screening panel who pleaded for anonymity hinted this weekly that most of the aspirants were allegedly disqualified for presentation of false academic certificates, petitions from relevant authorities, anti-party activities amongst several others.
Some of the disqualified aspirants who spoke to our political correspondent were threatening to defect to another political party(ies) where they would be given the opportunity to contest the Assembly election in 2015.
Meanwhile, politics is all about strategic planning, alignment and re-alignment. Most of the qualified aspirants have also dropped their ambition and gave their support to more credible and popular contestants in their constituencies.
Information reaching our political desk had it that no fewer than twenty (20) RSHA aspirants decided not to run for the State Assembly seat. This will no doubt solidify the strength of the party during an election. A popular adage says that, “a divided house cannot stand”, the leadership of the party has put several measures in place to ensure that unity exists among the party members, before the primaries and the general election.
To this end, aspirants not only those who are eyeing RSHA that cannot win election have been asked to step down to pave way for more and better acceptable aspirants that can take the party to victory in 2015. ###
