Rasaq AbdulKareem/
The African Democratic Congress has commenced the sale of its Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms for the 2019 general elections.
The announcement was made today when the party also insisted that retired Justice Folahanmi Olamide Oloyede is its deputy governorship candidate in the coming election.
In a statement signed by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mrs Yemi Kolapo, the ADC says the forms have been made affordable in line with the commitment to a fair playing ground for all aspirants.
According to the statement, the expression of interest and nomination forms for the presidential category is N2 million and N10 million, respectively, totalling N12 million for a presidential aspirant.
It says: “For the governorship category, the nomination form goes for N5 million, an expression of interest, N1million, totalling N6 million. For Senate, the nomination form is N2 million, an expression of interest, N500, 000. This adds up to N2.5 million. Total (Expression of Interest and Nomination) for the House of Representatives is N1 million, and for State House of Assembly, N450, 000.
“The forms for the State Assembly can be purchased from either the State or National Secretariat. But for Presidential, Governorship, Senate, and House of Representative’s aspirants, forms are to be purchased at the National Secretariat, Abuja.”
The party stated that while the nomination fee for female aspirants, physically challenged and vulnerable persons was voluntary, those under 30 years were expected to pay 50 per cent of the fee.
The National Chairman of ADC, Chief Ralph Nwosu, said, “One of our guiding principles is inclusivity and full involvement of the youth, women, and physically challenged persons because they are indispensable partners in all our missions and we believe working together makes great things happen.
“ADC is a vision driven grassroots political party with Role-modelling Leadership Paradigm. Our party is not in the ridiculous and bizarre “Harvest-Bazaar” money politics and godfatherism. We are members financed; every member pays N200 about 60 cents for membership, renewable every four years.”
The party leader added that aside from the over two million registered fee-paying members, ADC also had over 10 million persons on cue for registration in their various constituencies.
“Our guiding Principles are clearly worded so that all members and joiners are clearly spirited. Our drive is good. Nigerians, young and old love the party and the ADC-spirit culture. We recently commissioned an independent survey of the perception of the Nigerian public of five of the major parties currently in Nigeria,” he added.
On the coming election in Osun, the ADC noted that there had been protests over the omission of Oloyede’s name on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s candidates’ list for the September 22, 2018 Governorship elections in Osun State.
Kolapo, said the ADC’s National Working Committee, was happy that “the people of Osun State have demonstrated their unflinching support for an amazon, who stood up for them, not minding negative implications on her life and career, and are ready to speak for her and the Governorship candidate with their votes, come September 22, 2018.
“In view of this, we are emphasizing, for clarity, that the candidates for Governor and Deputy Governor of our great party, ADC, in Osun State are Fatai Akinade Akinbade and Folahanmi Olamide Oloyede (Rtd Justice), respectively, and no political pranks can change this.
“INEC has been duly notified and the Commission has also affirmed the receipt of these names as candidates of ADC. The omission of the name of our party’s candidate for Deputy Governor from INEC’s list may, therefore, be the handiwork of mischief-makers and those playing god in Osun politics.”
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