PDP Raked In N43 Million From South-East 46 Governorship Aspirants

Forty-six governorship aspirants on the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have been cleared to contest the forthcoming governorship primaries in four States of the South-East geo-political zone, even as seven aspirants failed to show up for screening.

This came as one of the aspirants cleared for Enugu race, Mr. Chinedu Onu, declared that no mortal could anoint a governor for the entire people of the state.
Speaking to newsmen in Enugu yesterday, Chairman PDP Screening Committee, SC, in charge of South-East, Umaru Ndanusa, said his committee cleared 46 of the aspirants but noted that seven of the 53 of them however failed to show up for the screening.
According to him, “we do not have unsuccessful ones, but we have those who did not come. We have four absentees from Abia, one each from Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo.
Among the successful aspirants who collected their clearance certificate on Monday night were Senator Ifeanyi Ararume (Imo), Martin Agbaso (Imo), Chinedu Onu (Enugu), Immediate past Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, Felix Nwosu and Marc Nwagbara, (all from Abia) as witnessed by the press.
The screening committee declined to give the names of the aspirants successfully screened, except mentioning the total number.
It equally refused to name the seven aspirants that failed to turn out for screening.
Speaking in a separate interview in connection with the purported anointment of  Mr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi by Govenror Sullivan Chime, Onu said, “no mortal will anoint anybody. It is only God that gives power. Power comes from God. God spoke to me once. Twice I have heard Him clearly that power belongs to Him. That is why in Enugu, we do not quarrel, and we do not fight. We market our policies.
”We market our programmes and our expectations. You could recall that when Ifeanyi was running for the House of Representatives, I was the Chairman of his campaign organization.”
The Punch newspaper version
There were indications on Sunday that the leadership of Peoples Democratic Party in the South East had raked in about N43m from the screening of governorship aspirants in the zone.
Forty-three governorship aspirants from Imo, Abia, Enugu and Ebonyi states have so far been screened at the PDP South East zonal office in Enugu and each of them paid a mandatory N1m fee to the zonal leadership before facing the screening committee.
Our correspondent gathered that all the payments were made in cash as cheques were not accepted.
A governorship aspirant, who pleaded anonymity, confirmed to journalists that he paid N1m before he was screened.
But a source in the PDP South East zonal office said the payments were not screening fees.
The source explained that the N1m was party dues owed by the aspirants.
He said most of the aspirants had been evading payment of the party dues, a development which prompted the zonal leadership to seize the opportunity offered by the screening to collect the money.
Aspirants seeking election into the state and national assemblies were also made to pay their ‘outstanding party dues’, according to the source.
However, it appeared that the dues are not uniform, as our correspondent gathered that House of Assembly aspirants paid N150,000, also in cash, before they were screened.
Some of the aspirants had complained bitterly over the development, claiming it was illegal.
The screening is expected to end on Monday