NPP suspends parliamentary aspirant

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has suspended a parliamentary aspirant in the Nalerigu-Gambaga Constituency of the North East Region, citing misconduct as the basis.

Peter Baaga, a former DCE and a former Gambaga/Nalerigu Constituency Chairman was suspended following utterances he made on Tizaa Radio, a local radio station in the North East capital, Nalerigu, on May 12, 2020.

The Deputy Director of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) for the Northern Region accused the Member of Parliament for the Gambaga/Nalerigu Constituency, Hajia Alimah Mahama, who is also the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, of distributing motor tricycles to win favours from delegates in the upcoming parliamentary primaries.

Mr. Baaga alleged in an audio intercepted by 3news.com that he masterminded the rigging of the 2004 elections in favour of Hajia Alima Mahama to win the seat for the first time for the NPP.

“Alima knows what I did for her to become an MP. We will all account for our deeds on Judgment Day. She has so soon forgotten all these struggles and is taking me now for a fool but I won’t allow it to happen,” he disclosed on the local radio station in Nalerigu.

He further alleged in the audio, recounting how Hajia Alima tried to mastermind his sacking as a DCE under the erstwhile Kufuor administration in 2008.

“She went pleading with the then President through the Chief of Staff to fire me because my continued stay was a threat to her winning the seat. I was summoned to the then seat of government (Castle Osu) but while on the way, I was involved in an accident, and my vehicle was damaged beyond repair. At the meeting, she repeated that I was campaigning against her but I questioned her how she became an MP….I demanded to know whether or not we rigged the election for her. She admitted that her votes were short but I (Peter Wuni) knew what I did for her to win,” he revealed in the audio.

A letter signed by the Regional Chairman, Fuseini Nurudeen, accused Mr Wuni Baaga of making certain utterances on live radio which the party describes as breaches.

“This action has been necessitated by certain utterances you made during a radio program at Tizaa FM, a local radio station based in Nalerigu in the evening of 12th May 2020. Your utterances were in breach of Article 4(7) of the NPP Constitution and the General Guidelines governing the parliamentary primaries issued by the General Secretary of the party. The Regional Chairman as well as the Regional Executive Committee are in possession of a recorded tape of the programme and are compelled to initiate disciplinary action against you,” the letter read in part.

The letter further directed the aspirant to cease holding himself as a member of the party until investigations of misconduct against him are completed.