A fresh crisis appeared to have hit the registration process of the three merging political parties, following their decision to formally apply to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) last week for registration as All Progressives Congress (APC).

Sources close to the electoral body said the merging APC had failed to comply with two key requirements of the constitution and the Electoral Act in the merger process.

According to sources, the merging APC had failed to submit the names of its interim officers, in accordance with Section 222(a) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The merging parties rather submitted the names of officials of the three merging parties who signed the document submitted to INEC.

It was also gathered that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the merging parties, could not submit its original certificate to INEC, following the refusal of its pioneer chairman, Senator Rufai Hanga, to drop the certificate.

However, the CPC was said to have claimed that its certificate was missing, whereas Senator Hanga had publicly announced that he was in its possession.

Besides, a rival claimant to the acronym APC, the All Progressive Congress of Nigeria, which had in March applied for registration as a political party with the APC acronym, has threatened to secure an injunction restraining INEC from registering the merging APC under the acronym.

National secretary of the rival APC, Mr Oguzie Ikechukwu, said in Abuja on Thursday that his group would not allow INEC register another party with the acronym, having originally applied for the name ahead of the merger group.

He said his group's application was first sent to INEC on March 5, adding that INEC replied and advised it to consider another acronym, since another political association had applied with the APC acronym.

He said the political group, again on March 28, wrote to INEC, seeking registration as All Progressive Congress of Nigeria (APCN), adding that INEC replied it again through its secretary, Abdulahi Kaugama, claiming that the acronym APCN was similar to a registered political party, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN).

Ikechukwu stated that APCN, again, wrote to INEC on April 29 and May 10, seeking the details of any party whose acronym coincided with that of the APC it originally applied with.

The political association, again in a letter dated May 22, quoting sections two and five of the Freedom of Information Act, asked to be furnished with details of any political party whose registration was pending at INEC and with the acronym APC.

He expressed surprised that while INEC had not replied its letter, it went ahead to receive application for merger with the acronym APC from the merging political parties on June 5, 2013.

"We wrote them and insisted that in view of our earlier application with the name All Progressive Congress, which you advised us in your letter dated March 15, 2013 to change name, as our acronym is similar to that of another association seeking registration, we, therefore, demanded to be furnished with the name and application of any association whose name is All Progressive Congress of acronym APC and its application is still pending before your commission," Ikechukwu said.

INEC's spokesman, Mr Kayode Idowu, however told the Nigerian Tribune in a telephone chat that the commission had not disqualified the merging party, adding that the document submitted was being processed.

"Application (of the merging parties) has been received and it is being processed according to the Electoral Act," he said, adding that the result of the verification would be communicated accordingly.

Source: http://odili.net/news/source/2013/jun/14/604.html

There will be absolutely no problem preventing APC from being registered as a political party. PDP can continue to sponsor their cohorts to register with the same acronyms but they won't succceed. APC is here to stay!

automaticcarzz: There will be absolutely no problem preventing APC from being registered as a political party. PDP can continue to sponsor their cohorts to register with the same acronyms but they won't succceed. APC is here to stay!

No bro. APC is dead on arrival.

Sunny_bobo:

No bro. APC is dead on arrival.

You have a point there. If they are against the PDP, why are they seeking to recruit some supposed 'evil' PDP politicians?

Sunny_bobo:

No bro. APC is dead on arrival.

You are in a dream land called PDPville. APC will be a political party in the next one month.

CFCfan:
You have a point there. If they are against the PDP, why are they seeking to recruit some supposed 'evil' PDP politicians?

Who have they recruited from PDP so far? Mention a PDP member or members who have been recruited into APC fold. You all keep repeating the same lies and propaganda of APC fielding rejected PDP members and thinking may be your lies stick. Politics is a game of number. If there is anyone from PDP who wants to join APC, that person must take a back seat. You are free to join but can't take control.

payless:


You are in a dream land called PDPville. APC will be a political party in the next one month.

Yeah, they'll soon get their certificate. But the they also have to aggressively market themselves with an identifiable ideology. Will they be in favour of a capitalist, mixed, socialist or semi-socialist economic system? On foreign policy, will they continue with the "Africa is the centre-piece of our foreign policy" mantra?

Anyway, being registered 2 years before the next general elections will be a timely boost to them. It will afford them the opportunity to set up their structures nationwide.

CFCfan:
Yeah, they'll soon get their certificate. But the they also have to aggressively market themselves with an identifiable ideology. Will they be in favour of a capitalist, mixed, socialist or semi-socialist economic system? On foreign policy, will they continue with the "Africa is the centre-piece of our foreign policy" mantra?

Anyway, being registered 2 years before the next general elections will be a timely boost to them. It will afford them the opportunity to set up their structures nationwide.

Just wait as they unfold their agenda for the country. This is the first time in 14 years of PDP domination that a political party is giving PDP a sleepless night. There is reason for PDP to be worried. Just stay tuned!

This is injustice and very undemocratic on the side of Jega!! Since tinibu APC is trying to bring sanity to Nigeria, I think they should start by letting the first owners of the APC take the name without any trouble!! Then I'll start taking them serious!! Come-on!! In a democratic society, it is first come, first serve!! Or maybe tinibu's democracy means bigger man first, then smaller man last!! He thinks maybe because his own APC is bigger than the other APC, then they should serve him first!! Nah nah!! It's not done that way!!

payless:


Just wait as they unfold their agenda for the country. This is the first time in 14 years of PDP domination that a political party is giving PDP a sleepless night. There is reason for PDP to be worried. Just stay tuned!

I don't think it is time yet for PDP to start getting worried!! Remember Senator
Rufai Hanga has refused to submit CPC original certificate!! And I'm very sure APGA won't submit their original certificate!! So maybe the APC might just be made of A.C.N and ANPP!!

payless:


Who have they recruited from PDP so far? Mention a PDP member or members who have been recruited into APC fold. You all keep repeating the same lies and propaganda of APC fielding rejected PDP members and thinking may be your lies stick. Politics is a game of number. If there is anyone from PDP who wants to join APC, that person must take a back seat. You are free to join but can't take control.

Except you are calling lie mohammed a liar!! He told us that APC now has 23 governors?? Did the governors fall from heaven?? Or did they create more states in the west??
For example - if they change nairaland name to koboland for instance!! Does it change the fact that you (payless) are still an APC fan or will it change the fact that you don't see anything good in GEJ government??
So if a pdp governor goes to apc, he'll still remain the same!!

homesteady:

Except you are calling lie mohammed a liar!! He told us that APC now has 23 governors?? Did the governors fall from heaven?? Or did they create more states in the west??
For example - if they change nairaland name to koboland for instance!! Does it change the fact that you (payless) are still an APC fan or will it change the fact that you don't see anything good in GEJ government??
So if a pdp governor goes to apc, he'll still remain the same!!

Exactly! Some of those 23 Governors are from the PDP. Remember that the opposition (ACN, CPC, APGA and LP) all collectively have 12 governors; so 11 of the 23 are definitely PDP.

Having said all that, the 2 year head-start that the APC has will count for something in 2015. I expect the PDP to be challenged in a way that they (PDP) have never been challenged before. The failure of past mergers/alliances came about due to the fact that such ventures were embarked upon some few months before the elections. One thing is for certain though, both the Labour Party and APGA will NOT field presidential nominees in 2015, as they are both aligned with the PDP at the national level.

CFCfan:
It was also gathered that the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), one of the merging parties, could not submit its original certificate to INEC, following the refusal of its pioneer chairman, Senator Rufai Hanga, to drop the certificate.


Source: http://odili.net/news/source/2013/jun/14/604.html

I got to the bolded, stopped reading, then scrolled down to see the source of this junk.

" DROP " the certificate?!

Nigeria is truly finished if illiterates like this are what constitutes her journalists.

kingoflag:

I got to the bolded, stopped reading, then scrolled down to see the source of this junk.

" DROP " the certificate?!

Nigeria is truly finished if illiterates like this are what constitutes her journalists.

Lwkmd
The journalist should have used the word 'submit'.

CFCfan:
Lwkmd
The journalist should have used the word 'submit'.

Better yet he couldve just said "Hand over". smh Im tired of that country.

kingoflag:

Better yet he couldve just said "Hand over". smh Im tired of that country.

And the editor(s) didn't spot the error

CFCfan:

And the editor(s) didn't spot the error

How did he get the job in the first place?

payless:


Who have they recruited from PDP so far? Mention a PDP member or members who have been recruited into APC fold. You all keep repeating the same lies and propaganda of APC fielding rejected PDP members and thinking may be your lies stick. Politics is a game of number. If there is anyone from PDP who wants to join APC, that person must take a back seat. You are free to join but can't take control.

It's on record that ACN the backbone of the APC merger has always outsourced their presidential candidates from the PDP. In 2003, as AD they adopted OBJ. In 2007, they hired Atiku. In 2011, they went for OBJ boy, Ribadu and sold him out in d dying minute for the PDP candidate, GEJ. For 2015, they are already shopping for Tambuwal.

APC exemplifies, how not to run an opposition party. Their greatest undoing in themselves. It's not surprising when you have two noisemakers in Lai MOhammed and the CPC spokesperson. Instead of them to quietly register their part, they're busy telling us how many PDP governors are joining their fold thereby giving the opposition arm to dismantle them. Even if PDP is sabotaging their efforts, in won't blame them cos they have been fed all the strategies of the opposition party. is APC the only MUMU party in NIgeria? Can't they just do things the right way.

Afam4eva: APC exemplifies, how not to run an opposition party. Their greatest undoing in themselves. It's not surprising when you have two noisemakers in Lai MOhammed and the CPC spokesperson. Instead of them to quietly register their part, they're busy telling us how many PDP governors are joining their fold thereby giving the opposition arm to dismantle them. Even if PDP is sabotaging their efforts, in won't blame them cos they have been fed all the strategies of the opposition party. is APC the only MUMU party in NIgeria? Can't they just do things the right way.

Is it possible to learn left handedness in old age?