TheCable

The screening committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has disqualified two presidential hopefuls.

David Mark, chairman of the screening committee, announced the development on Friday after the screening exercise in Abuja.

Speaking to journalists, Mark declined to reveal the names of the disqualified aspirants, but said the affected persons failed to meet the necessary requirements.

“The exercise, as far as we’re concerned, has gone on very well. We’ve been here since morning, and I’m sure you people have been here since morning also,” he said.

“We’ve been very thorough this time around. See how much time we’ve taken to screen each individual who has been here. We screened 17 aspirants, which is quite a number. We cleared 15; two have not been cleared.

“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 question in that direction, you’re wasting time.

“I think on the whole, that’s what we’ve done. And we’re 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.”

He also said the panel didn’t make recommendations for refund of the nomination form fee to the disqualified aspirants, adding that the committee report would be submitted to the PDP national working committee (NWC) “this night”.

“We’ll submit and then those who were not cleared have a right to appeal. I’m sure they will go on appeal because there is an appeal panel,” he added.