PDP Officials Ask Ribadu To Provide Further Evidence To Earn Waiver

The governorship dreams of a former chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu, appears to have hit a bump as the Peoples Democratic Party is demanding more information from him before deciding whether to grant him and two other aspirants waivers to take part in primaries scheduled for September 6 to pick the party’s candidate for the Adamawa State governorship election. After two contentious meetings over the last two days, national officials the PDP were unable to decide whether to grant waivers to Mr. Ribadu, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (Rtd.), and Marcus Gundiri to participate in the primary process. All three governorship aspirants had requested the waivers to enable them to vie in the primaries after they recently defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP.

But after two marathon meetings that took place at the national headquarters of the party in Abuja and the Presidential Villa, the members of the National Working Committee of the party were unable to agree on whether or not to grant the waivers. Owing to the serious disagreements among the NWC members, the screening of the aspirants, which scheduled to take place in Abuja on Thursday, has been moved to Saturday, August 30. The PDP’s NWC set up a subcommittee that includes the party’s national legal adviser, national publicity secretary and national financial secretary to demand more documentation from the PDP’s vice chairman for the northeast zone. The subcommittee was mandated to request more information from Mr. Ribadu and other recent defectors to demonstrate that they truly qualify for waivers. A source from the NWC told revealed that the party must proceed cautiously on the issue of extending waivers to the defectors in order not to leave longtime and loyal members of the party disaffected. Last week, Mr. Ribadu created a media splash when he announced his resignation from APC and defection to the PDP as well as his desire to seek his new party's nomination as the governorship candidate.

Meanwhile, the PDP has yet to release the names of members of its screening panel for the Adamawa governorship.The party’s national organizing secretary, Abubakar Mustapha, defended the party's position, telling reporters in Abuja that the screening would now take place on Saturday while the names of the screening panel members will   be released on Friday.

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