No fewer than 100 aspirants are vying for the 24 seats in Enugu State House of Assembly on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) platform.
About 18 serving members of the House were among the large number of aspirants who appeared before the Screening Committee led by former Minister of Sports, Bala Kaoje, on Thursday night, at the State Secretariat of PDP in Enugu.
With the exception of few female aspirants who paid N200, 000 for the expression of interest form, majority of the aspirants officially paid N1.2 million each for the interest expression form.
Before appearing before the screening committee, each of the aspirants paid N150, 000 screening fee.
Speaking with journalists’ at the venue, Kaoje hailed the aspirants for good conduct.
“We have screened about 85 now and we are expecting more. So far, so good; you can see the faces of all the aspirants that have come here to be screened. They are happy with the way we have done it. We didn’t take too long time to check their documents and assess them because most of them seem to know what they are doing.
“They all look like very experienced politicians. They provided the answers as they stated when they filled in their interest declaration forms. And they brought all the documents including the originals for us to sight. They made our work very easy. Since we started, we have not had any problem with one single aspirant” Kaoje said.
Some of the aspirants, who spoke to our correspondent at the venue however complained about the N150, 000 screening fees.
A stranded female aspirant who pleaded anonymity for fear of victimization, said PDP announced that the expression of interest form was free for women and yet they collected N200, 000 from her for the form and now they were demanding N150, 000 to screen her.
When confronted by journalists, Kaoje said he was not aware of any screening fee.
Acting Chairman of PDP in Enugu State, Elder David Ajah also said he was not aware of the screening fees.
Source: dailyindependent
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