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."
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.
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