Hajia Abibata Proposes Reforms to eliminate ‘Criminals’ from Contesting for positions in NPP

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Hajia Abibata Proposes Reforms to eliminate ‘Criminals’ from Contesting for positions in NPP

The 2024 Campaign Team of Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama, an aspiring parliamentary candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Yendi Constituency has passionately called on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party to make the necessary reforms to eliminate “conmen” or criminally minded people from contesting or leading the party at any level.
“The conduct of Farouk Aliu Mahama and his collaborators is a wake-up call to all political parties to sanitize the institution of politics and raise the bar to exclude conmen from engaging in illegal practices which they term as ‘mafia’ tactics. Clearly, it is unfortunate that decent and credible people like Hajia Abibata would be brought down to a low base level to be dealing with people like Farouk and his collaborators in a contest she is supposed to emerge as winner. We would like to call on the NEC of NPP to make the necessary reforms to eliminate such elements from the political space, because the Party deserves better.”
This was contained in a 15-point statement issued by the Communication Team of Abibata’s Campaign in response to an earlier 15-point statement issued by Farouk Aliu Mahama’s Campaign Team in reaction to an official Petition sent to the National Executives Committee of the NPP by Hajia Abibata demanding that the inconclusive Yendi Parliamentary Primaries held on 27th January, 2024 be declared null and void.
The Petition by Hajia Abibata comes immediately after her opponent, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama had been declared the winner of the inconclusive election through the help of the 3rd National Vice Chairman of the NPP, Alhaji Masawudu Osman, Alhaji Salifu Rashid C.O.P., the Northern Regional Youth Organiser, Alhaji Yussif Toyibu, the Regional Treasurer, Mr. Fusheini Bawah Kpana, the Regional Research and Elections Officer and Mr. Mohammed Adam Bantima Samba, the Northern Regional Chairman
However, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama and his team in the statement described as “baseless, misconceived and blatant falsehoods” the claims being made by Hajia Abibata. “The undisputed facts on the chronology of events on that day are that, at the close of polls, and after the ballot papers for both aspiring candidates were sorted, it became very clear to all onlookers that the papers sorted in favour of Hajia Abibata Shani Mahama were less than one-third of that of Hon. Farouk Mahama. Sensing that Abibata had lost the elections, her supporters, led by her elder brother, Murtala Shani Mahama and Aide, Alhassan Iddrisu, stormed the inner (counting) perimeter when the votes garnered by Farouk Mahama were being counted, ostensibly to disrupt the process in clear violation of the law particularly Sections 28 and 40 of the Representation of the People Law, 1992 (PNDCL 284) as amended”.
In a quick reaction, Hajia Abibata’s Communication team indicated “Knowing Hajia Abibata Shanni Mahama, ordinarily, she would not respond to this rather pathetic, infantile and poorly written misrepresentation by Farouk Aliu Mahama and his campaign team aimed at disrespecting the intelligence of the reading public. It is clear from their text that they have read but could not comprehend the content of the Petition, and we deem it quite necessary to correct the false impression and inaccurate information being put out by Farouk to apparently mislead, misinform and deceive the public”.
It noted that, Hajia Abibata, a known law-abiding citizen of Yendi never made any official statement or declaration as far as winning the Yendi Parliamentary Primaries was concerned, even though her ballot papers were exceedingly more than those of Farouk; which “to a large extent triggered Farouk and his team who are known rogue, disgruntled, dishonest and shameless collaborators to kick in their rigging machinery at that point”. I
Emphasizing, “it was rather Farouk Aliu Mahama who connived with those unscrupulous people without integrity to use dubious and illegitimate means to declare him winner of that inconclusive Yendi parliamentary primaries”.
In points 8 and 9 of his statement, Farouk Aliu Mahama insisted that “per the Party’s guidelines and established convention, the Elections Committee duly constituted by the Party is the ONLY BODY in charge of the conduct of the party’s parliamentary primaries”, and that “the Electoral Commission only comes in to supervise the conduct of the elections”.
Hajia Abibata’s statement rebutted that, Alhaji Farouk Aliu Mahama could not redefine the rules of the party. Adding that “the action of the 3rd National Vice Chairman and the rest of Farouk’s collaborators who declared him winner is in clear violation of the party’s Statement Referenced NPP/HQ/PR/2024/01/22/GS/PP dated January 22, 2024, which states in point number 2 that “No person, whether a government appointee, party official or otherwise, shall act in contravention of the Electoral Commission and these guidelines”.
The statement further rebutted that “the EC’s refusal to associate themselves with the misconduct and the illegitimate declaration by the 3rd National Vice Chairman clearly nullifies that illegitimate declaration.