The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in South East zone, has dismissed claims by some political office aspirants for 2015 elections that they are anointed candidates of President Goodluck Jonathan or his wife, Patience, saying that the first family has no anointed candidates for any position any where.
The party has therefore advised its members nursing ambitions to contest for any political office to desist from dropping the names of the President or his wife, insisting that they have no favorite candidates in any state.
The party’s position on the issue was made known by the zonal publicity secretary, Mr. Ali Odefa in Umuahia, stressing that the party was not happy that some aspirants have been dropping the names of the first family to gain advantage over others.
“I want to tell you that Mr. President has no candidate in any state. So anybody that has ambition to contest for any position and is dropping the name of the first family is on his/her own. The President is a man who believes in democracy and in internal democracy and the party is very particular about internal democracy”, Odefa explained.
Emphasizing the importance PDP attached to internal democracy, Odefa explained that the party would strictly follow due process in nominating and electing candidates when the time comes.
“I advise all members of our party that have ambition to stop dropping names and market yourselves if you have the quality and what it takes to do so.
“We don’t appreciate our party members coming to tell us I am the candidate the First Lady; I am the candidate of Mr. President. It is not true. The First Lady and Mr. President have no candidate.
At the fullness of time our party members would come together and elect whoever they want to represent them in any position”, he noted.
Odefa who said he was in Umuahia to what Governor Theodore Orji was doing in the state, commended the governor the development projects in the state and described him as “a gift to the people of Abia”. Vanguard
