4 PNC members petition Council of Elders

FOUR leading members of the People’s National Convention (PNC) have petitioned the Council of Elders of the party to investigate allegations ofabuse of power and corruption leveled against three national executive members of the party by Mr David Apasara, the National Treasurer of the PNC.

The group also threatened to go to court if these three persons, Dr Edward Mahama, Alhaji Ahmed Ramadan and Mr Bernard Mornah, the Leader, the National Chairman and the General Secretary respectively who were mentioned were not asked to step aside and investigated.

They argued that the perpetuation of these unfortunate acts by the leadership of the party would affect its chances of attracting votes and also meet the requirements of Sections 14 and 17 of the Political Parties law, Act 574.

This was contained in a petition jointly signed by Messers, Bernard Bamaame, Michael Anafo, Abubakar S. Wiyor, Haruna Abbas and Ibrahim Karim to the council of elders and copied to the Dr Mahama, Alhaji Ramadan , Mr Mornah as well as all regional chairmen of the party.

It said apart from the claims of embezzlement leveled against the leadership, the group was also afraid that the development in the party would affect the PNC’s ability to meet the Political Parties Law and in effect be barred from putting up a Presidential candidate for the 2012 elections as threatened by the Electoral Commission (EC).

In the September 28, 20.. edition of the Daily Graphic, Mr Apasara, PNC National Treasurer accused the three leading members of the party for fraud and embezzlement and spending the resources of the party without recourse to the laid-down procedures.

He explained that since he (Mr Apasara) assumed the constitutionally designated position of national treasurer in 2007, he had been sidelined in every aspect of the financial matters of the party and that all written and verbal complaints to the national executive and elders of the party had fallen on deaf ears .He added that although the law court was the last resort to seek justice, he had not been able to do so because he did not have the resources and time, hence his decision to go public about the issue.

The petition said “as members of the party we know that the PNC has received large sums of money from the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), dues from party members and other donations made to the party through visits made outside the country by Dr Mahama, Alhaji Ramadan and Mr Mornah, but could not be accounted for as per the Political Parties Law” adding that all because the National Treasurer had been sidelined in the undertaking of his constitutionally mandated duty as the treasurer of the party.

The group also described a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the party that was held on September 7, 2011 as unconstitutional, null and void under Article 43 of the PNC constitution because the Standing Committee and its subcommittees that should be established to undertake decisions for the party did not exist.

“This letter is a follow up to our petition dated September 9, 2011 to the elders of the party, complaining that the holding of constituency, regional and national congresses, including the budget for these congresses must be presented and discussed by the Standing Committee as required by Article 46 and 47 of the party’s constitution before being referred to NEC”, it said.

It should be appropriated that the powers and functions granted to the standing committee in the constitution was by congress and not the NEC, hence the NEC cannot usurp the powers granted to the standing Committee unless congress does decide to modify or revoke the powers granted to the Standing Committee by amending or repealing the relevant provisions of the constitution”.

According to the petition, “meeting that was held on September 7, 20.. turned out not to be a meeting of the NEC, because the people who attended and contributed at the meeting were largely not NEC members as required under Article 43 of the party’s constitution as amended. This type of arbitrary and capricious conduct violates Article 55 (5) of the national constitution.

“Therefore all the decisions, resolutions including the setting up of the purported committees are null and void and without any legal effect”.

It demanded the council of elders to make the appropriate announcements to nullify the dates for the opening of nominations to the national executive positions of the party, the holding of elections for constituency, regional and national congresses.