₦airaland Forum

The Nigerian electoral commission said the controversial APC will not be registered.

The plan by the African Peoples Congress to become a political party crashed on Monday as the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, said it would not register the association because it failed to meet the conditions for registration.

In a letter dated March 21 and sent to the political association, the commission said the group breached section 222 (a) of the 1999 Constitution as amended and thereby cannot be considered for any further registration as a political party.

The commission said that African Peoples Congress, which is one of the three associations laying claim to “APC” as its acronym, did not indicate the addresses of its national officers while filling Form PA 1, which the commission earlier forwarded to it.

Section 222 says, “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.”

INEC’s letter titled “Re: Application for Registration as a Political Party” reads: “Your application for registration as a political party dated 28thFebruary, 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 (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 PA 1 established that it does not contain the addresses of your national officers as stipulated in the provision above.

“Consequently, the Commission shall not register the proposed African People’s Congress, (APC) as a political party.”

The INEC Director of Publicity, Emmanuel Umenger confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that the commission wrote the association informing it of its decision.

He explained that the African Peoples Congress applied for registration on February 28, 2013 upon which the Commission forwarded to it documents, including Form A to fill.

He said that while returning the form, the association failed to fill the addresses of its national officers thereby breaching the provisions of the constitution.

“Yes, we wrote the association today March 21 and the letter is before me here and it was signed by the Commission’s Secretary. The association breached Section 222 of the constitution,” Mr. Umenger said.

Asked if INEC would reconsider the association’s application if it fulfills the said requirement, the Commission’s spokesman said “There is no second chance; the law is explicit and INEC follows what the law says.”

With INEC’s decision, the race is now left for the other two associations claiming to own the APC acronym. They are All Progressives Congress and All Patriotic Citizens.

Group reacts

But in a swift reaction, the Protem National Chairman of the African Peoples Congress, Oninye Ikeagwuonu, accused the commission of conniving with some unnamed politicians to deny it registration.

Mr. Ikeagwuonu said at a press conference in Abuja on Monday that he is in possession of a letter dated 21st March purportedly written by INEC, in which the commission premised the plan not to register the association on irregularities in the addresses of its national officers.

It is the second time in two weeks that the association is accusing INEC officials of conniving with unnamed politicians to deny it registration.

Mr. Ikeagwuonu, however, vowed that the association would not give up its pursuit for registration, adding that it would seek judicial intervention if INEC fails to register it.

Also reacting, a member of the Merger Committee of the All Progressives Congress, Osita Okechukwu praised INEC for “serving the cause of justice and defending the constitution.”

Mr. Okechukwu described the rush by the African Peoples Congress to INEC for registration, using “APC” as its acronym “as a culture of impunity borne out of mischief which was meant to sustain the one-party state that the Peoples Democratic Party has nurtured over the years.”

pazienza: Power supply in my area in Aba is now like 2-3hrs a day. Yet PHCN would still bring their monthly bill. It's somehow crazy,considering that by january this year,we were having not less than 18hrs of power supply on daily basis.
Can someone tell me what really went wrong?

Twenty-one governors of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) today boycotted what was billed as a grand reconciliation to bring together disaffected members of the party. In addition, the Senate President, Speaker and several prominent members of the party failed to turn up, making the event “a woeful failure” in the words of one of the party’s prominent members.

The planned reconciliation took place at the International Conference Center in Abuja. It was also planned to celebrate the first anniversary of the party's National Working Committee headed by Mr. Bamanga Tukur.

The event started at 3 p.m. with only a single governor, Idris Wada of Kogi, in attendance. Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom, the embattled chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, later arrived late. Speaking at the event, Mr. Akpabio said he wished to debunk newspaper reports that eight PDP governors were planning to leave the party to join the newly formed coalition of opposition parties.

Several PDP members in attendance at the event told a correspondent of SaharaReporters that they were shocked that the reconciliation failed to attract more than two of the party’s governors. Several of the governors sent their deputies to represent them, underscoring that the event was low on their priority list. SaharaReporters could not immediately ascertain whether Senate President David Mark and House Speaker Tambuwal sent any representatives.

The event was chaired by Vice President Namadi Sambo.

A little drama ensued at the venue when the Deputy Governor of Niger State was introduced as acting governor.

A party member told our correspondent that he was unable to say why President Goodluck Jonathan failed to attend the event which ended at 6 p.m. (Nigerian time).

In the race for the presidency, they are demanding full internal democracy and total transparency and openness in the choice of the presidential candidate of the emergent coalition party.

This where i have problems. I am from the South-East but a staunch supporter of Buhari's candidacy, If any other candidate emerged here, i would rather support the retar*deen at the top now, so that looting will go round the Geo-political zones than have a new thief who would start looting afresh

gbadexy: We only hav a few hours of electricity a ady here at surulere.
Am just having electricity today after 5 straight days of darkness.
Jonah just use scope increase electricity tariff without any improvement and he still want to increase it further.

tashanja: They will not do that; but na Tonto Dike change pant; ehen, fiam! straight to front pront page, no waste of time.

Sincere 9gerian: Fantastic development. I'm so happy with this latest development. It further CONFIRMS that the power reform agenda is REAL and working.

The historic transformation of the power sectors is unfolding right before our eyes.

Congratulations to all patriotic Nlanders who voted for sincerity and VISION.

We voted for TRANSFORMATION, and transformation is unfolding before our eyes.

Congratulations to all patriotic Nlanders who stood firm in defence of TRUTH on this forum.

Shame on haters, incurable cynics and pathological pessimists. What they said was IMPOSSIBLE, is unfolding, transparently, before our eyes.

Bye bye to PHCN

Comedian

taharqa: @OP, how could you hv experienced a 'drastic reductn in Power supply' to yr area from 3hrs to 5hrs . Abi, you forgot you told sm of us late last yr dat you were not enjoying d improvd Power supply sm persons were saying they were experiencing last yr. How come its now drastically 'reducd' to 5hrs from 3hrs??

YouWin, which has put smiles on the faces of 1,200 youths

Out of 100million jobless Nigerians Are you this daft? Smh! You are just one of the reasons Nigerians heap insults on Jonathan.

When quizzed about the medical report, Sylvester said it was not authentic.

kokoA: Some group of misguided illiterates up north chose to turn their land into a war zone, unsafe for any form of investment and the so called "educated leaders" down east want same for their own land to. Somebody should tell this ohaneze people that killing hausa men in the east will only turn the place into a war zone, same as the north. If they can channel half of the energy they put into supporting GEJ, talking about igbo presidency, fighting for Biafra and other irrelivant things into pressurizing the federal government to up her game or change her tactics in the fight against terrorism (or "killing of igbos in the north" as they say), maybe things would have been better.. I am not an igbo hater, but someone needs to tell them the truth. Your leaders are bunch of pretenders. Its only when a major bomb blast hapens that they roll out their "war drums", making very unintelligent comments like this above. What happens after a week?! Yes! Life goes back to normal, they return to licking GEJ's butt, fghting for contracts, fighting for igbo presidency, fighting for Biafra, and wait till another aboki decides to blow himseflf up along with some of "their igbo brothers", then they dust up their war drums again and the cycle continues. Smh!