By Iliya Kure
Two out of the 17 aspirants seeking presidential ticket from Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to contest the 2023 election have been disqualified.
The chairman of the presidential screening committee, Sen. David Mark, who briefed journalists in Abuja, Friday night, after the exercise, said “We screened 17 aspirants, which is quite a number. We cleared 15, two have not been cleared.
Sen. Mark described the 15 aspirants cleared by the committee as qualified enough to win the party ticket and also win the 2023 election.
Responding to questions, Mark said, “Now don’t ask me those who have been cleared and those who have not been cleared, because I won’t tell you.
“We haven’t released the result to them. So, if you ask questions in that direction, you are wasting time.
“I think on the whole that is what we have done. And we are quite satisfied with the standard of the aspirants by and large. And we think that any one of them who gets the ticket would win the election in 2023”.
On whether there will be refunds of the N40 million paid by each of the aspirants, Sen. Mark said, “Why should the party refund the money? What will be the reason now?”
The chairman of the panel added that the report of the screening exercise would be submitted to the leadership of the party.
“This night, we will submit our report and those who were not cleared have a right to appeal. I am sure they will go on appeal because there is an appeal panel”.