Barely six days after the merger party,
the All Progressives Congress approached the Independent National
Electoral Commission for registration, another political association,
the All Progressive Congress of Nigeria, has threatened to sue over the
APC acronym.
National Secretary of APCN, Mr. Oguzie
Ikechukwu, in Abuja on Thursday said his party would seek court order
restraining INEC from approving the APC acronym for the All Progressives
Congress.
Ikechukwu said the APCN was relying on
sections 2 and 5 of the Freedom of Information Act to ask INEC to
furnish it with the names and applications of any other association
laying claim to the APC acronym.
He explained to journalists that the
APCN had in a similar letter to INEC dated May 22 asked the commission
to furnish it with the name of the group which it claimed had earlier
applied for registration with such an acronym.
The commission, had, as part of its
party registration requirements, asked the APC, now APCN, to furnish it
with the addresses of the national officers as required by section
222(a) of the 1999 Constitution.
This, according to a source, has created
tension among leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress being
promoted by three political parties viz: the Action Congress of
Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples
Party.
It was however not clear whether the
parties’ application to merge and be registered as APC came with names
and addresses of their national officers.
The leadership of the merging political
parties was unable to choose an interim management team thus leaving the
task of signing the necessary INEC documents for the national chairmen,
secretaries and treasurers of each of the political parties to sign.
There are fears however that the merger
group may suffer the same fate with the rival African People’s Congress
which the INEC had earlier rejected its application on similar grounds.
The APCN has vowed to resist any attempt
to register any other political association with the APC acronym
because it claimed to be the first to approach INEC with its letter of
intent to be registered with the APC acronym.
The group which bears the same name and
acronym with the merging opposition political parties, All Progressives
Congress, commenced its registration process with a letter of intent to
the commission on March 5, 2013.
It was the same time another group, the
African People’s Congress, also approached the electoral body seeking to
be registered with the same acronym.
In a new twist to the tale, the Alliance
for Democracy has approached the court asking that it be included
alongside INEC as a defendant in a suit filed by the African Peoples
Congress against INEC over the refusal to register it.
A statement by the National Legal
Adviser to the African Peoples’ Congress, Mr. Kingsley Nandi, on
Thursday said AD’s action had been brought to its notice.
He said, “This is to officially confirm
that the Alliance for Democracy in a surprise display of political and
legal rascality has filed a suit at the Federal High Court Abuja seeking
to be joined as a second defendant alongside INEC.
“As a result of inquiries and need to keep the public aware of the stages of our struggle we decided to let the press know.
“Our main suit against INEC (for the
upturning of its decision not to register us) at the Federal High Court
has reached an advanced stage as all necessary pleadings, affidavit and
counter-affidavit have all been filed and exchanged between us and INEC.
“The court has fixed July 5, 2013 for
the adoption of our written addresses and possibly judgment in this
crucial case which will shape the road map to the 2015 elections.
“Note also that we have filled a
counter-ction to stop the new antics of AD by asking the court to strike
out the application by AD.”
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