One of the two aspirants for the parliamentary primaries in the Binduri district of the Upper East Region has been disqualified by the National Parliamentary Vetting Committee (NPVC). Alex Avoka was disqualified by the Committee on three grounds.
Mr. Avoka’s disqualification was shared in a letter sighted by the website and signed by the Upper East Regional Secretary of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Elvis Awonekai Atia.
“We have been instructed by the National Parliamentary Vetting Committee (NPVC) in charge of the region to notify you of your disqualification as APC to contest the Parliamentary Primaries scheduled to take place on Saturday, the 27th January 2024, at the Binduri Constituency. The Committee’s decision to recommend to the National Executive Council (NEC) for your disqualification is necessitated by the following acts, which were proven against you when you appeared for vetting before the Committee on Wednesday, 1st January 2024: (a) Forgery of signatures and/or thumbprint on your nomination of Clement Afugu and Adamu Mamata, which acts are criminal offenses; (b) Reduction of the date of birth to benefit from 50% filing fees granted to under 40 years APC, and (c) Claiming to have a Bachelor of Business Administration (Human Resources) from the Christian Service University College Kumasi when you did not even attend school there.”
“You are at liberty to appeal against the recommendation of the NPVC of the region to the Appeals Committee as provided for by the rules, regulations, and guidelines for the election,” the letter read.
In response to the issues raised against him, Alex Avoka, speaking to A1 Radio’s Mark Smith, explained that the committee’s comments are baseless as he hopes to disprove the allegations raised against him.
Mr. Avoka made his own allegations suggesting that Clement Afugu and Adamu Mamata were bribed to say that they had not backed his nomination forms.
In response to Mr. Avoka’s comments, Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga, the Communication Director of the party, explained that the party stands by the decision to suspend Mr. Avoka, adding that if he had issues against his disqualification, he was free to appeal the matter.
“Nothing has changed since the last time the report was issued. It’s for him to petition us now to see if there could be a change of opinion. If he chooses that option, the party would consider it and perhaps look a little deeper, but from where I sit this morning, he has been disqualified and that is it.”
“You know, these are serious issues. If you have used people’s ID cards without their knowledge, that amounts to criminality,” he said.
Mr. Ayinbisa Ayamga continued to explain that the issue of forgery that was raised by the committee came to light after the affected persons petitioned the committee.
“Two of them wrote a petition to the party. He [Mr. Avoka] requested their ID cards and their voter ID numbers and had never got back to them. They suspected that he had done something with them. They were there physically to be sure that their names were not used.”
The Communication Director of the party denied all allegations raised by Mr. Avoka that the two who had petitioned the party had been bribed with amounts in excess of Ghc20,000 and other favors.
Source: A1Radioonline.Com|101.1MHZ|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Bolgatanga|
