By Davies Iheamnachor, PORT HARCOURT

The screening committee of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, has completed the screening of 56 governorship aspirants from four South-South states.

Speaking after the screening exercise in Port Harcourt on Friday at the zonal office of the party, chairman of the committee and Governor of Bayelsa State, Douye Diri, described the two days exercise as transparent.

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Diri, who expressed confidence that the party would field its best candidate in the general election, noted that all aspirants have what it takes to fly the party flag.

He said: “The exercise was quite transparent and it is a family affair and men of integrity are in this committee.

“The panel has done its job with all the details observed. And now we have successfully completed our assignment.

“From what you have witnessed, the expectations are that we are putting forth our best and virtually all of those who appear before us have what it takes to fly the party flag in the four states in the region.

“As you are aware, Bayelsa and Edo are off season. So in the South-south, we have four states rather than six.

“Our take is that this is a family affair. Our party is our family. And hitherto people keep jumping from one party to the other.

“It will interest you to know that we screen some of them who jumped away and they are back and they are now our touch bearers preaching that PDP is the best party and they have returned to their home.

“In all, they were 57 aspirants but one did not turn up and so we screened 56 aspirants.”

Diri, who gave a breakdown of aspirants from the four states: “Rivers state has 17 aspirants; Delta, 15; Cross Rivers, 11 and Akwa Ibom, 14.”

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