PPA sacks Exco in Niger, Ekiti, others over poor performance

The National Working Committee, NWC, of Peoples Progressive Alliance, PPA, yesterday announced the dissolution of its state executive committees in Sokoto, Niger, Plateau and Ekiti, States over alleged failures to field candidates in the just concluded general elections.

The NWC, which also accused affected executive committees of incompetence, failures to promote and sell the party’s manifesto during the polls, said their action “caused disaffection within the party and unruly behavior” to its leadership.

The national chairman of PPA, Chief Peter Ameh, who conveyed the development via a letter to the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega, said the action became imperative in order to strengthen and reposition the party for enhanced performance.

The party has consequently appointed a 12-man caretaker committee to take charge, pending the conduct of a fresh congress.

The NWC said its Niger State chapter was dissolved “after series of investigation which found members culpable of gross misconduct contrary to Article 12(2) a, b, c, d and refusal to appear before its disciplinary committee.”

Ameh told journalists on Friday in Abuja during a press briefing to announce the party’s decision that the action will improve “our chances as we start early preparation for future elections.”

The letter was also copied to the Resident Electoral Commissioners of affected states, Commissioners of Police and Directors of State Security Services.

He noted that, “Apart from the offense listed in their official letters, including gross misconduct, the affected states failed grossly to enhance the chances of the party at the last polls, where some of them failed to file in candidates for the election.

He added, “We see such actions as high level of incompetence because there was enough time to prepare, promote, and sell the manifesto of the party to aspirants.

“They could not state clearly what distinguished our party from other political parties, including our commitment to fairness and due process in our party’s selection process and respect for internal party democracy.”

Speaking on the recently-concluded elections, he stated that the rat race between the two major political parties went a long way in affecting the electoral victories of other registered political parties.

To correct this perceived anomaly in subsequent elections, the PPA chairman said political parties would have to sit down with INEC and offer suggestions on how to improve the electoral process.

He said: “We are going to sit down with INEC and discuss. We are going to look at how to improve the voting system and make it right because the Option A4 of 1999 is still greater and more transparent than what we have today.

“We are still going to look at better ways to improve the electoral process. If we are going for full-blown electoral voting system, we should go for it to protect the interest of all registered political parties. In doing that, the mandate of parties, which won election, will not be lost,” he said.