APC dares INEC, says '"we won’t change name"

INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega

The All Progressives Congress on Tuesday dared the Independent National Electoral Commission, saying it would not change its name as suggested by the electoral umpire.

The yet-to-be registered party also said there was no iota of truth in the claim by  INEC that a group with the same acronym had approached it for registration as a political party.

The Chief Press Secretary to the commission’s  Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu,  was reported by a national daily (not The PUNCH)   to have urged  opposition parties in the APC to consider a new name and abbreviation to facilitate the registration of their group as a political party.

“We don’t encourage political parties with similar names, manifestoes, logos and acronyms and this is aimed at avoiding confusion between registered political parties with similar names and acronyms,” the newspaper quoted Idowu to have said.

 But some   leaders of the opposition political parties that merged to form the APC said INEC must be lying about its claim.

They said the APC , which came  into being as a result of the merger of three opposition political parties, would not change its identity.

The  leaders were asked to comment on the speculations that other  leaders of the APC were already   considering to change  the name to ADC.

Speaking with one of our correspondents, the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the APC  would not change its name.

He said, “No, we won’t change our name. We will stand by that name and that is what we want to be called at the commission.”

The  Congress for Progressive Change spokesman, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin,  said he agreed  with Mohammed.

Fashakin  said, “ We shall show to the Nigerian people nay, the whole world that INEC is indeed in collusion with the ruling party, the PDP, to extirpate any vestige of constitutional democracy from Nigeria’s political space.”

He  stated that the subterranean move by the PDP to scuttle the merger had boomeranged.

 “They  are unaware that their plot to surreptitiously lay this subterfuge as an impediment for the emergence of the new mega party would be unravelled at such an early stage,” the CPC  spokesman added.

He then asked, “Did INEC intend to use this terse letter from a law firm as a reason for refusing the registration of the new mega opposition party even when requirements for registration have not been satisfied by this ‘African People’s Congress’ and its phony sponsors? Is there any collusion with INEC leadership in this secret plot?

“Did the Electoral Act contemplate a letter from a law firm as the condition precedent for the registration of a political party or such as enshrined in section 222 (a – e) of the 2010 constitution (as amended)?’

Also, a former Governorship candidate for  the CPC  in Enugu State, Chief Osita Okechuwku,  insisted that the APC would not succumb to the pressure to change its identity.

He said, “We challenge INEC to resist the temptation of registration of mischief-makers and confusionists represented by a lawyer. The intendment of the constitution and the Electoral Act is that mischief-makers shall not be registered as political party. INEC can’t claim to be ignorant of the birth of APC on February 6. I can tell you that we won’t change our name as presently known.”

  Okechukwu added that the merging parties had announced the formation of  APC on February 6 through the media before the African Peoples Congress went to INEC.

THE PUNCH