The Inter-Party Advisory Council of Nigeria, IPAC has removed its Secretary and Deputy Secretary for violations of the Council’s Code of Conduct. The decision to suspend the two officers was taken at its General Assembly meeting on 11th and 12th November 2015.
In attendance were 21 political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The meeting had received a report from a Committee set up earlier to determine cases of violations of Political Parties Code of Conduct 2013 brought by the Executive Committee against its Secretary, Mr. Godson Okoye and Deputy Secretary, Mr. Rasaq Eyiowuawi. The Political Parties Code of Conduct 2013 was written and adopted by Nigeria’s registered political parties on 16th July 2013 to regulate their conduct. It also doubles as the governing regulation of the Inter-Party Advisory Council.
A Committee set up by the General Assembly of IPAC and chaired by the National Chairman of Hope Democratic Party, Chief Ambrose Albert Owuru had, after investigating the charges of misconduct against Messrs. Okoye and Eyiowuawi, presented a report to the Council’s General Assembly on 12th November 2015 on violations of Articles 5 and 10 of the Political Parties Code of Conduct against the two national officers and recommended their removal. The two officers were invited to defend themselves but they declined, without giving reasons for doing so. In his reply to the invitation by the Chairman of the investigation committee, the Deputy Secretary wrote, “Don’t ever in your life send me these messages again.”
Parties that voted for the removal of the two national officers included Accord, Action Alliance, Advance Congress of Democrats, African Democratic Congress, Alliance for Democracy, African Political Alliance, All Progressive Congress, Citizen Popular Party, Democratic Peoples Party and Fresh Democratic Party. Others are Hope Democratic Party, Independent Democrats, KOWA Party, Mega Progressive Peoples Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, Peoples Democratic Movement, Peoples Party of Nigeria, Social Democratic Party, Unity Party of Nigeria and United Peoples Party.
In a related development, the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, had set up an Election Committee to conduct a by-election into the vacant positions of Secretary and Deputy Secretary. The Election Committee, which has three members, is chaired by Chief Chekwas Okorie, National Chairman of United Peoples Party with the National Chairman of DPP, Mr. Benson Gashon, as Member and National Secretary of UPN, Alh. Abubakar Sokoto, as Secretary.
In a circular released to all political parties in Abuja on Saturday and copied to the Independent National Electoral Commission, the Secretary of the IPAC Election Committee, Alh. Abubakar Sokoto, had requested political parties interested in contesting any of the two positions to send in their nomination on or before Wednesday, 18th November 2015. INEC is required to supervise elections into the IPAC Executive Committee.
It will be recalled that IPAC had conducted an election into its Executive Committee on 24th July 2015 under the supervision of INEC in which the National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Movement, Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim emerged as Chairman of the Council to defeat his opponent Mr. Peter Ameh of Progressive Peoples Alliance. Mr. Ameh had since approached the Abuja Federal High Court to challenge the election. Under Mr. Ibrahim, IPAC had successfully conducted elections into Executive Committees of the 36 States of the Federation and FCT between 16th and 30th September, 2015.
