The New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) has constituted a 5-man committee to screen the party ahead of the governorship primaries scheduled for Friday, 23rd February, 2024.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Abdulrahman Abubakar, assured of a level-playing ground for all the aspirants saying it will carry out a thorough job that will bring out the best among the aspirants for the party for the September 2024 governor election.
The party’s national publicity Yakubu Shendam, while speaking with the media on Wednesday in Abuja, said NNPP will conduct a credible and transparent where the best among the aspirants will emerge as candidate.
“We have converged here to conduct screening for our aspirants in Edo State. As you can see, the aspirants have spoken, have told the people of Edo what they have if they are cleared and elected as governor. For us as a party, we have arranged for a level playing ground for those who are being screened today.
“We decided to make it transparent so that nobody would say he has been screened out. What we have displayed here is democracy at its finest. That is why we have brought party executives at the national and state levels and some of our colleagues. We believe all of them will be properly screened, will be cleared, and go into primaries proper on Friday.
“NNPP is a party of transparency. We don’t want to do what happened in Edo State where APC is coming out with five candidates claiming to have won the primaries of the party or the PDP that does not even know where they are.
“Ours is very straightforward and we want to make sure that we bring out a very credible candidate and that we are here and we don’t want anybody to interfere. We want the committee to do their job, clear them, and then we go for primaries. Last week, we had our congresses where we elected our delegates and they are all there in Benin City and their various local government areas.
“We assure Nigerians and people of Edo that the 2024 off-cycle election will see NNPP produce the next governor in Edo State so that people’s suffering can stop. We have adopted indirect primaries and that is why we have elected our delegates as I earlier said and they would vote who they want among the four aspirants,” Shendam told Nigerian Tribune.
The aspirants Peter Okoeguale, Sebastian Iyere, Balogun Eeleyeme, and Azena Friday in separate interviews with Nigerian Tribune promised to promote good governance to Edo State and provide basic needs for the people.
Other members of the screening committee are Ladipo Johnson, Mustapha Alkassim, Ahmed Tafawa Balewa. Bashir Abacha will serve as the secretary.
