C O N F U S I O N *Rival group rejects APC registration *Demands probe of Jega and other INEC officials. Trouble seems not to be over for the All Progressives Congress, APC,despite its celebrated registrationas a political party by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, as its rival, the Africa Peoples Congress, rejected the recognition and called for the investigation of the Commission’sofficials for allegedly compromising their positions. APC, a merger of the some opposition political parties, namely Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN; Congress for Progressive Change, CPC; All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP; and sections of the Democratic Peoples Party, DPP and All Progressives Grand Alliance was registered as a political party on Wednesday by INEC. However, addressing a news conference in Abuja on Thursday,the National Chairman of the African Peoples Congress, OnyinyeIkeagwuonu, said it was still in court challenging INEC’s rejection of its application to be registered as a political party some months ago, insisting that the APC acronym was not available for thenew party. The association argued that though INEC rejected its application, the process of party registration does not end with the electoral body since the Electoral Act provides that any association whose application is turned down can proceed to the court. “We invite the press to note that by the provision of the Electoral Act, the last phase in the registration process of a political party resides with the court in the event that INEC denies an applicant’s registration,” Mr. Ikeagwonu said. Section 79 of the Electoral Act states that “…the decision of INEC not to register any association as a political party may be challenged in a court of law provided that the legal action challenging the decision of INEC shall be commenced within 30 days from the date of receipt of the letter of notification of non-registration from INEC.” “The implication of the above provision is that the power to register a political party does not end with INEC once a judicial review is being sought,” he said. “We have complied with the above provision and started our judicial review to upturn INEC’s decision not to register our association and INEC has fully joined in the suit and exchanged all the necessary court processes. “INEC has power to register any association as a political party butlacks the power to register any group bearing the same name or acronym with our APC. “As long as our case is in court, the acronym APC is not yet available as the process of registration which ends with a judicial review is still ongoing,” he added. The association said INEC acknowledged that it was the first to apply with the acronym and that the electoral body was incourt to defend its actions. The chairman said the decision ofINEC to reject his association’s application for registration was baseless “in view of the fact that we complied with the provisions of the law and provided them with the address of our national officers.” He added, “One then wonders on what ground the Jega-led INEC decided to register a group whose acronym is same as ours. “What will happen to INEC and the merger parties when the Court gives judgment in our favour and reinstates our right over the APC acronym? “The many hurdles and conspiracies being thrown at us, we have surmounted in the past and will continue to surmount.” “The court has remained firm on the rule of law and has continuedto reject all frivolous applications deliberately filed to derail our case which include the sponsored joinder applied by the Tinubu faction of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). “As pathetic as it seems, also the Femi Falana suit fronting a strange APC which the court will soon rule on tells the story of desperation-unlimited by the Merger party,” he said. Mr. Ikeagwonu alleged that with the registration of APC, INEC Chairman, Attahiru Jega and his officials had aligned with the newparty to plunge the country’s democratic process into chaos. According to him, “actions of the Commission that led to this ridiculous registration of the All Progressive Congress, had alwaysbeen put in public space by the African People’s Congress and another look at them convey an outrageous aversion to the tenetsof the rule of law by the wheeler-dealer leadership of the Commission.”
Posted on: Sat, 03 Aug 2013 10:42:53 +0000