Some elders of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Nalerigu/Gambaga constituency of the North East Region are angry over the disqualification of a former District Chief Executive, Peter Wuni Baaga, from the party's upcoming parliamentary primaries.
The party's General Secretary John Boadu, at a press briefing June 8 excluded the name of Peter from the list of candidates for the elections in the constituency without providing reasons.
The aspirant was already under an indefinite suspension sanctioned by the party regional executives following a radio interview he granted in May in which some of his utterances were found to have breached Article 4(7) of the party's constitution.
Essentially, Mr Baaga in the said interview allegedly accused Hajia Alimah Mahama of rigging the 2004 parliamentary elections and incompetence while responding to allegations of stealing made against him by the Local Government and Rural Development Minister.
While under the suspension, he was fired from his job as a Deputy Director of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) by the presidency and has now been disqualified from contesting the primaries.
The disqualification has drawn the fury of senior members and elders of the ruling party in the constituency who are speaking out publicly for the first time since the controversy escalated in March.
The elders have condemned the treatment meted out to the aspirant and said the disqualification spells doom for the fortunes of the party in the general elections.
70-years-old Alhaji Dibo who spoke to JoyNews said, they were disappointed at the national leadership of the party for failing to heed their advice not to disqualify Peter Wuni Baaga.
"They are doing what they want, and the people too would do what they want", Alhaji Dibo remarked angrily.
"Because the one that they removed, I'm sure, if they don't change it, by all the means NDC would take the seat, he continued.
"The delegates would vote Hajia Alimah and the General elections, Hajia would lose. I'm telling the truth."
"The one they removed, he joined the party 28yrs now. They is no place that they don't know him. He is the one who brought Hajia Alimah to the party. As for me, I want NPP to win, but what they have done, I doubt it. The small boys who joined the party now they have removed our party name, and say that we do not have sense."
Peter Wuni Baaga, a close ally of former president John Kufuor, was one of the three candidates vetted and approved by the leadership of the NPP to face the incumbent Member of Parliament, Hajia Alimah Mahama, in the contest to represent the party in the constituency for the December polls.
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