By Ahmed Idris
Chairmen of 47 political parties under the aegis of Concerned Leaders of Nigeria’s Political Parties have rejected the candidature of Chief Peter Ameh of the Progressives Peoples Alliance (PPA) for the chairmanship of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC).
This was contained in a protest letter addressed to the PPA chairman titled “Appraising Your Suitability to Lead Inter-Party Advisory Council” signed by the national chairman of Independent Democrats, Chief Edozie Madu, and his Unity Party of Nigeria, Professor Bankole Okowa.
The group alleged that Ameh undermined Inter-Party Advisory Council, created division after losing election in 2015, and allegedly engaged in financial misappropriation between 2014 and 2015.
The group also accused the PPA chairman of making the tenure of the executive in the 2015 uncomfortable and rubbishing the process conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
According to the group, aspiration of the PPA chairman would dent the image of the Inter-Party Advisory Council.
The letter reads in part: “You (Ameh), participated in the IPAC National Executive Committee election of July 24th 2015, as a candidate for the position of chairman, an election supervised and certified as free and fair by Independent Electoral Commission. You and all those who lost the election did so by narrow margin.
“Upon announcement of the results, all those who lost in all other positions congratulated the winners but you stormed out of the election venue after subjecting members of IPAC Election Committee and officials of INEC to vitriolic and acerbic verbal abuses, in a conduct unbecoming of a leader.
“Thereafter, you took the winner of the election, INEC, and IPAC to court and, throughout the tenure of the 2015 executive committee, you boycotted and undermined the council.”