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The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday announced minor adjustments to its guidelines and congresses.

The guidelines and schedules for congresses and
national convention were released by the party during its National
Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on Wednesday last week. According to
the party’s spokesperson, Rufai Alkali, in Abuja, the National Working
Committee (NWC) at its emergency meeting last Sunday approved the
changes.

He said that the ward congresses for the election of
three ad-hoc delegates earlier scheduled for today are now to hold
nationwide on Saturday this week, while the local government congresses
for the election of one national delegate per local government area
previously fixed for Thursday will now hold on Monday next week.

Mr Alkali said the adjustments were necessitated by
the need to allow aspirants to obtain and return their nomination forms
for the congresses without undue stress.

Nomination fees

He also said that the NWC approved N100 as nomination
fee for both ward ad-hoc and national delegate nomination forms,
payable in cash at the party’s state, national and Federal Capital
Territory secretariats.

“The decision to include the national secretariat for
obtaining and return of ad-hoc nomination forms is informed by the
commitment of the party leadership to safeguard against the exclusion
of any member at any level from fully participating in the forthcoming
exercises,” the PDP spokesman stated.

Mr Alkali also announced that the sales and return of
Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for the House of Assembly,
National Assembly (House of Representatives and Senate), gubernatorial
and presidential elections have now been extended to 24 hours before
the screening deadlines for the various offices, as set out in the
timetable.

The NWC, according to him, warned state chapters of
the party not to charge any additional fees to aspirants regarding the
purchase of Expression of Interest and Nomination forms, outside the
prescribed fees as approved by NEC.

“The NWC wishes to reiterate that no state chapter should charge any
additional fees to aspirants regarding the purchase of Expression of
Interest forms and Nomination forms outside the prescribed fees as
approved by the National Executive Committee,” Mr Alkali said.