A new twist has occurred in the name crisis being faced in the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected the application of the African People’s Congress (APC) for registration.
The leadership of the African People’s Congress has, however, vowed to resist its non-registration on the grounds that it fulfilled all requirements for registration as a political party.
In a letter signed by its secretary, Abdullahi A. Kaugama, dated March 21, 2013, a copy of which was obtained by the Nigerian Tribune, INEC said “the commission has observed that your association is in breach of Section 222(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), which stipulates as follows:
“No association by whatever name called shall function as a political party unless: (a) The names and addresses of its national officers are registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“A close observation of your submitted form PA1 established that it does not contain the addresses of your national officers, stipulated in the provision above.
“Consequently, the commission shall not register the proposed African People’s Congress (APC) as a political party.”
The leadership of the APC, however, decried the attitude of the electoral body and alleged that there was a plot to deny its rebgistration, even after it had fulfilled all the requirements.
JD:The new coalition of the parties will have to show a lot of maturity and tact in this obvious move to distract and destabilise them.Jega’s interview with the Vanguard last week showed that as at the time he was speaking none of the parties had met the minimum requirement for registration of the APC.The coalition has more rivers to cross because their own registration is a merger rather than a fresh registeration.One wonders why to short circuit all this the coalition just doesn’t register a new party and then get all members to join,as time is of the esssence.Should they insist on using the acronym APC,they will definitely be on lockdown till the case is decided at the Supreme Court which may well be beyond 2015 if past experiences is anything to go by.Pray tell me,whats in a name?Nigerians just want a strong oppositioin to put everything in a balance.
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