ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The national chairman of Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Chief Peter Ameh, on Tuesday emerged as the new chairman of Inter-Parry Advisory Council (IPAC), with a promise to make the organisation an independent group that would not be under the influence or control of any political party or INEC.
Ameh’s election followed the decision of the appeals committee which nullified the last month’s election of the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM), Alhaji Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim.
Sundiata Post recalls that shortly after the election, Ameh had petitioned the IPAC election appeals committee, alleging that the election which was held at the conference room of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was marred by irregularities as the representatives of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were barred from taking part. His petition lead to the ordering of a re-run by the appeals committee.
All the national chairmen of the 16 political parties who were preset at the re-run voted for the PPA chairman while his opponent, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahin absented himself and insisted that he was the authentic chairman recognised by INEC.
Speaking before the election, the chairman of the Electoral Committee, Ganiyu Oseni Galadima, who is also the chairman of Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), regretted the decision by Bashir Yusuf to boycott the rerun. He noted that the re-run had to be conducted for the position of chairman following the decision of the election appeals committee which nullified the election of the PDM chairman and ordered for a fresh election.
Ameh, while speaking after his inauguration by the former chairman of IPAC, Dr. YinusaTanko, pledged to reach out to members of all the 29 registered political parties to protect the country’s democracy.
He stated that IPAC under his leadership would endeavour to be an independent association that would not be under the influence or control of any political party or INEC.
Ameh said, “My election today is in the face of truth and justice. It has taught me a big lesson that we must be fair to each other and treat all Nigerians as equal irrespective of tribe or religion. We will be fair to all political parties and bring everybody on board for the interest of developing the Nigerian democracy.”
In his remarks earlier, the former chairman, Yinusa Tanko, who handed over to Ameh, pledged to work with the new leadership of IPAC to fasten the process of reconciliation of all aggrieved political parties for the purpose of protecting the development of democracy in the country.