Chimaroke Nnamani. Photo Credit: The Cable Ahead of the February 25th presidential election in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has taken the bold step to sanitize the party as the nation goes to poll. Latest in the steps that are being taken by PDP to sterilize the party was the expulsion of the former Governor of Enugu State, incumbent senator and the PDP candidate for the Enugu West Senatorial district, Senator Chimaroke Nnamani.
According to the spokesperson of PDP, Debo Ologunagba, Chimaroke Nnamani was expelled from the PDP "anti-party activities and other grave offences in violation of the constitution of the PDP." It could be recalled that Chimaroke Nnamani, last year declared his support for the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC0, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a declaration that he restated a few days ago.
Following the decision made by the PDP NWC, many political opinion moulders in the country have been contemplating on what would become the faith of Nnamabi in the House of Assembly and whether his candidature under the platform of PDP has been nullified.
Although, it is known that the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the 2022 Electoral Act, as amended has not make provision for an independent candidate, meaning that every candidate must be sponsored by a political party, but the case of Nnamani may be different and with soft landing.
Nnamani still have advantage of approaching court to set aside the decision made by the party's NWC, recalling that he recently claimed that he was not given proper hearing before his suspension. If he can secure the court order to set aside his expulsion, he would definitely have full right to pursue his election without suffering litigation from his opponents in the race.
If at all he later lose the litigation against his party after his election, he may perfect his way by quickly defecting to another party immediately after the next National Assembly will be inaugurated.
Many political spectators are also suggesting possibility of the replacement of his name by the PDP before February 25th, 2023 when the general elections will commence. This is considerably impossible and it would amount to a regrettable political mistake if PDP should tow the line. This is because, according to the 2022 Electoral Act, replacement of any candidate's name, once it has already been submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is possible on two grounds, (1) the death of the candidate or (2) Withdrawal of the candidate from the race. Without this, PDP has no power to withdraw his ticket and they cannot stop him from contesting the next election.
Category: Forum
Tag: Ken Nnamani news pdp news nigeria politics nigeria news today
Written by Nicolas Smith (nicolas)
Published 2/11/2023 12:29:50 AM