Registration: Will APC become a
political party tomorrow?

BY CLIFFORD NDUJIHE &
JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU
WILL the All Progressives Congress
(APC) be registered as a political
party tomorrow or will the leaders
be asked to return to the drawing
board and come up with a new
name and other paraphernalia?
These are some of the questions
that are expected to be answered
tomorrow by the Independent
National Electoral Commission
(INEC).
Going by the provision of Section
84 (4) of the Electoral Act 2010,
the All Progressives Congress
should have started functioning as
a political party since July 10,
2013, which was exactly 30 days
the leaders submitted a formal
request for merger of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All
Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and
Congress for Progressive Change
(CPC). The request was dated June
5 but the INEC received it on June
10.
Section 84 (4) of the Act says: “On
receipt of the request for merger
of political parties, the
Commission shall consider the
request and, if the parties have
fulfilled the requirements of the
Constitution and this Act, approve
the proposed merger and
communicate its decision to the
parties concerned before the
expiration of 30 days from the
date of the receipt of the formal
request- provided that if the
Commission fails to communicate
its decision within 30 days the
merger shall be deemed to be
effective.”
However, APC is yet to start
functioning as a political party for
a number of reasons. The INEC
wrote the chairmen of the
merging parties on June 12
forwarding 35 copies of the
commission’s Form PA 1 for
completion and return along with
35 copies each of APC’s proposed
constitution, manifesto and
affidavit in support of claims in
Form PA 1.
The political association submitted
the requested documents on July
1. INEC stated in its June 12 letter
that it would commence the
processing of the request after
receiving the demanded
documents. In essence, the
electoral umpire, by its statement,
is expected to verify the
documents and come up with a
decision within 30 days, a timeline
that will elapse at 12 midnight
today.
Although, the INEC timeline is at
variance with the provision of the
Electoral Act, which is 30 days
from the date of the receipt of the
formal request not 30 days from
the date 35 copies of certain
documents are submitted to INEC,
APC cannot operate without
INEC’s confirmation.
Aside INEC’s nod, APC, which has
vowed to snatch presidential
power from the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015,
may to have to wait longer to
realize its quest. Reason: there are
calls on INEC not register All
Progressives Congress on account
of a pending litigation challenging
the acronym “APC.”
Buhari, CPC; Onu,ANPP; Okorocha,
APGA and Tinubu, ACN
Another political association,
which shares the same acronym,
the African People’s Congress has
commenced an action at the
Federal High Court, Abuja in Suit
No. FHC/ABJ/CS/224/2013
challenging INEC’s refusal to
register it as a political party, and
one of the reliefs it is seeking
before the court is an order
prohibiting the registration of any
other association known as and
called African Peoples Congress or
having the acronym, APC, as a
political p arty pending the
determination of the suit.
INEC‘ll register APC if it meets
registration requirements
However, Mr. Kayode Idowu, chief
press secretary to the INEC
National Chairman, Prof. Attahiru
Jega reportedly said that the
commission would register the
merger APC if it met the
requirements.
“The Independent National
Electoral Commission conducts its
operations based strictly on its
existing guidelines and rules.
“Every application that meets the
prescribed rules and conditions
set by the constitution, gets
registered, and any that does not
meet the prescribed rules, does
not get registered,” he said.
Factional APC opposes registration
of merger APC
As the battle for the ownership of
APC franchise linger, the African
Peoples Congress, one of the
associations laying claim to the
APC acronym has told the INEC
that the plan to register the
merger APC would be an effort in
futility.
National Legal Adviser of African
Peoples Congress, Mr. Kingsley
Nnadi who accused INEC of being
bent on registering the rival APC
said even after the African Peoples
Congress had gone to court
challenging the refusal of the
commission to register it, which
he claimed first applied for
registration after ‘fulfilling’ all the
necessary requirements.
Nnadi said that INEC being aware
of the pending matter in court
and having entered appearance for
the case was not supposed to
continue with the process of
registering the All Progressives
Congress.
His words: “INEC is bent on
registering the All Progressives
Congress even when our matter is
in court. They are not supposed to
do anything until further
determination of the matter. We
are the first that applied to INEC
with the APC acronym and INEC
refused to register us with the
claim that we did not furnish
them with the addresses of
national officers which we did.
“We are optimistic that the court
will do justice to our matter that
is why we did not bother to apply
for an injunction restraining INEC
from registering anybody with the
acronym. Whoever is registered
apart from us the original owners
of the acronym, the court will void
it and it will amount to building on
quick sand which will not last.”
The rival APC legal adviser further
argued, “When there is a pendency
of a matter, in law, you are not
supposed to do anything that will
destroy the subject matter. Now
that INEC is bent on registering
them, the commission is touching
the subject matter which is before
the court.
“INEC is aware of the matter, it
has been served and it has
entered appearance. Common law
knowledge should tell them (INEC)
that they are not supposed to
touch the matter. Jega said there
is no injunction restraining him,
but when you are aware of a
matter, you don’t need an
injunction, but we are not
bothered,” he stated.
INEC has no reason not to register
APC – ACN
Reacting to the issue, weekend,
the ACN said that the merger APC
had met all the requirements to
consummate its merger; hence the
electoral umpire had no defensible
reason not to approve the merger.
In a statement issued in Lagos by
its National Publicity Secretary,
Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party
said in spite of recent media
reports concerning the antics of
some negative forces within INEC
over APC’s registration, the
emerging party’s leadership had
no doubt that in the end the
electoral body would do what was
right in accordance with the law.
It therefore dismissed as a mere
speculation the report that INEC
was planning to write a letter to
the proponents of APC to find
another name because of a court
case instituted by a political
association over the APC acronym.
‘’We are convinced that INEC has
no discernible reason to write
such a letter to us. In the first
instance, there exists no court
injunction anywhere restraining
the commission from registering
APC. There could be many court
cases, but until there is a court
order, no one can pre-empt what
a court will do and act on that
basis.
‘’Again, we have met all the
stipulated requirements. INEC has
also inspected our proposed
headquarters in Abuja and sighted
all our interim officers. The
merger process may be novel, but
we have played according to the
rules and we expect nothing less
from INEC,’’ the ACN said.
Why rival APC went to court
At the peak of the crisis of identity
rocking the All Progressives
Congress and African Peoples
Congress the INEC, after a long
silence, came up with a definitive
position that was meant to seal
the African Peoples Congress.
In a letter to the group, the
commission rejected its bid for
registration on the ground that it
breached Section 222 (a) of the
1999 Nigeria Constitution as
amended.
In the letter duly signed by the
Secretary to the commission,
Abdulahi Kaugama and dated
March 21, 2013, INEC also noted
that the Form PA 1 the association
submitted did not contain the
addresses of the association’s
national officers.
The letter: INEC/DPPM&L/
APC/490/V.1/76, read in part:
“Your application for registration
as a political party dated 28th
February, 2013 refers. 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; the names and
addresses of its national officers
are registered with the
Independent National Electoral
Commission; A close observation
of your submitted form PA 1
established that it does not
contain the addresses of your
national officers as stipulated in
the provisions above.
Consequently, the commission
shall not register the proposed
African Peoples Congress (APC) as
a political party.”
With this, the African Peoples
Congress was left with no option
than the law courts.
Responding to the issue, a lawyer,
Mr. Kelvin Okoro, said he would
fight for the association free of
charge at the law court because
the matter portended grave
danger to the nation’s democracy.
His words: “We singled out the
African People’s Congress case
because it is a litmus test for
democracy in Nigeria. African
People’s Congress has fulfilled all
legal requirements as stipulated in
Section 222 of the 1999
Constitution (as amended) and
Section 78 of the Electoral Act.
“As such, they should be given the
legal power to operate as a
political party, notwithstanding
whose onus is affected and we
expect INEC to do what the law
expects them to do. We are not
trying to pre-empt INEC but we
are saying that in the event that
INEC fails to do what the law
expects them to do, our services
would be given pro bono (free),”
he assured.

Where is d source ?

That one nobi tori again,weda dem like am or not,dem go register Apc to happiness of the poor man on the street and to the pains of jonah azz lickers here on nairaland

APC will surely be register , whether they like it or not, @least we must have strong opposition so that pdp can be serious

APC means A = Abandoned P = pdp C = criminals