Imo Rerun: Party Jettison Committee Report, allows Free for All Race

 

By Lazarus Zakaa, Abuja.

The Chairman, Imo North Senatorial Committee, of the All Progressive Congress, Dr. Lawrence Chuku has described the decision of the party as embarrassing and Unfortunate for jettisoning the committee report.

The Chairman who stated this on Monday while briefing newsmen at the party Secretariat, said it was with utmost dismay noticing that the committee report which cleared 5 aspirants and have six not cleared for very cogent and verifiable reasons were jettisoned.

Chuku said that, both aspirants cleared and not cleared were allowed to run for the Senatorial primaries.

“Embarrassingly, one of the aspirants not cleared is being touted as having emerged as one of the winners of the said controversial primary election.

“For record purposes, the eleven Senatorial Aspirants Screened were; SENATOR IFEANYI GODWIN ARARUME, HON. MATTHEW OMEGARA, ACHONU ATHANASIUS NNEJI, UCHENDU MARK CHIJIOKE, 1BEZIM CHUKWUMA FRANK, EDITH CHIDINMAUWA JIMUOGO, UCHENNA ONYEIWU- UBA, EZE JOACHIM OKORO, BRIGHT NWACHUKWU, ONUOHA CHIKWEM CHIJIOKE, IHEANACHO CELESTINE IHIM.

“Our Committee cleared five (5) aspirants namely: SENATOR IFEANYI GODWIN ARARUME, UCHENDU MARK CHIJIOKE, EDITH CHIDINMA UWAJIMUOGU, BRIGHT NWACHUKWU, EZE JOACHIM OKOROS”. He said.

The chairman however said 6 other aspirants were disqualified for not meeting the basic requirements and they are; HON. MATTHEW OMEGARA, ACHONU ATHANASIUS NNEJI, 1BEZIM CHUKwUMA FRANK, UCHENNA ONYEIWU UBA, ONUOHA CHIKWEM CHIJIOKE, IHEANACHO CELESTINE IHIM

He stressed that, Section 3(f) of the guidelines for the nomination of
candidates stipulated that ONLY aspirants fully cleared by
the party shall be eligible to stand election at the party’s primaries.

He also stressed that, Section 3(k) also clearly stated that all aspirants must show knowledge of the party’s manifestos and programs
and must commit themselves to the full implementation of the party’s goals and objectives.

He noted that, not losing sight of section 3(L) which states that all
aspirants are to submit evidence of membership of the party for at least one year except a waiver is given.

“Therefore in compliance with section 11 of same guideline
stipulating the roles and responsibilities of the screening
committee, we have done our job sincerely, honestly and diligently without fear or favour but we have observed that Mr. Frank Ibezim who is purported to be one of the
possible flag bearers of our party, was not cleared to contest the Imo North Senatorial primary elections on the following grounds that;

He did not submit any originals of his educational qualification certificates or properly certified true
copies for citing.

He presented a statutory declaration of age deposed
to by one Emmanuel lbezim, who happens to be his elder brother.

The statutory age declaration was not signed by the declarant, which rendered the document invalid.

He submitted another affidavit stating the loss of his academic qualification certificates which was not signed by the deponent, this also rendered the document invalid.

The said unsigned affidavit did not have a police extract in support, to show that he reported to the
law enforcement authority.

Chuku maintained that, Mr. Frank lbezim submitted the photocopies of his academic certificates which he said were missing namely, WAEC CERTIFICATE, UNIVERSITY DEGREE AND NYSC CERTIFICATE,
Purportedly certified as true copies of the originals and we made the following observations.

He said one person signed a signature on all the photocopies of his certificates and dated them for a fee of N500.00, as though they were being certified as true copies.

According to him, nothing written on the academic certificates read certified true copies, nothing written on them showed who purportedly certified the certificates as true
true copies.

Nothing written on them showed where they were certified in other to prove that the certifier had custody of the originals as required by law.

He said for such certificates as WAEC CERTIFICATE, the custodian of the original should be the West
African Examinations Council and they should be the ones to certify a photocopy as a true copy of
the original.

According to him “for such certificates as UNIVERSITY DEGREE
obtained from Imo state University, the custodian of the original should be the issuing university and
they alone can certify a copy as true copy of the original

“For such certificates as the NYSC CERTIFICATE, only the National Youth Service Commission can
certify a photocopy of the certificate as the true copy of the original as the issuing authority.

“It is important to note that these institutions mentioned are the only ones to do the certifications as the certificates have been reported as missing”.

Chuku insisted that It is also noteworthy that Mr. lbezim’s invalid
affidavit of loss of certificates was dated in 2010 and he has had them for 10 years without and signature and he never made any attempt to
Contact the issuing authorities to properly certify them assuming, though not conceding that they
even existed, and thereby presenting fake documents to the screening committee.

He said that, as responsible party loyalists, they are committed to ensuring that their party does
the right thing by putting the right foot forward to win the Imo North senatorial by-elections which shall be keenly contested.

 

Leave a Reply

Verified by ExactMetrics