By Kolade larewaju
ABEOKUTA—TWENTY SEVEN of 29 governorship aspirants jostling for governorship under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South West including Oyo State governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala; former deputy governor of Lagos State, Mr. Femi Pedro; and the consensus candidate of the party in Ogun West Senatorial district, Mr. Gboyega Nasir Isiaka, were yesterday said to have scaled the screening exercise by PDP screening committee for South-West geo-political zone.

Aspirants from Ogun, Lagos and Oyo states, Tuesday, underwent rigorous screening before a committee headed by Senator Florence Ita-Giwa.

Ita-Giwa said that her committee worked all night in order to ensure that all the aspirants were attended to within the stipulated time.

She said two aspirants from Ogun, Mr. Akinlade Isiaq and Mrs Temidayo Oriola, at the time of filing this report, were yet to report for the exercise, adding that the other aspirants had been issued with provisional clearance.

She said: “We carried out a very transparent, peaceful and successful exercise. There was no witch-hunting of any sort. We were equally not interested in the geo-political problems.”

She noted  that her committee would also write a report on all the aspirants and forward it to the National Working Committee, NWC, noting that the NWC reserved the right to withdraw the provisional certificate issued to any of the aspirants for whatever reason.

She said that petitions were received on some aspirants from Lagos State, describing it as frivolous and also dismissed insinuations that the exercise was in futility.

“It is not an exercise in futility. Everybody knows me; I won’t be part of any frivolity. It was a very useful exercise.

“We need it to ensure that people who are going to represent us as governors are knowledgeable and fit in all ramifications,” she said.