INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega
The Independent National Electoral Commission has taken a practical step to resolve the controversy surrounding the ownership of an acronym, APC, by inviting one of the claimants, the All Progressives Congress, to a meeting in Abuja.
It was learnt of the invitation on Thursday hours after the African Peoples Congress, another claimant to the acronym, accused INEC officials of being involved in “black market transaction.”
All Patriotic Citizens is the third political group that also claimed ownership of APC. It made a U-turn on this has yet to come up with a new name.
All Progressives Congress is being formed by four opposition political parties – the Action Congress of Nigeria, the All Nigeria Peoples Party, the Congress for Progressive Change and a faction of the All Progressives Grand Alliance – to wrest power from the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2015 elections.
Although no reason for the invitation was given, a very reliable source in INEC told one of our correspondents that it was for the purpose of discussing the controversy surrounding the acronym.
He however said the meeting which would have held on Friday (today) was postponed because the All Progressives Congress leadership complained of the short notice given by INEC.
“Yes we called for a meeting with the leaders of the All Progressives Congress tomorrow (today) but it will not come up again since the leaders of the political group complained of the short notice given to them. Another day will be fixed for the meeting,” the source added.
When contacted for his response on the invitation, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr. Kayode Idowu, simply said, “No comment.”
But the National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Alhaji Layi Mohammed, confirmed the invitation to the meeting and its postponement.
“It is true but it has been postponed. The notice was too short for our leaders to honour,” Mohammed said.
When asked when the meeting would take place, he replied “Till another date both sides agree.”
Our correspondents however gathered that the All Progressives Congress merger committee which is led by a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Tom Ikimi, would meet today in Abuja to discuss issues concerning the acronym (APC), name change and modalities for the formation of a new party.
Meanwhile, the African Peoples Congress on Thursday in Abuja raised the alarm that some conspirators had infiltrated INEC in order to deny it accreditation through “black market transaction.”
It claimed that the transaction was being influenced by a “Lagos mafia.”
The Acting Chairman of the African Peoples Congress, Chief Onyinye Ikeagwuonu, disclosed this in a speech entitled, “The dark forces are gathering again,” during a visit to the group’s secretariat by 30 lawyers operating under the aegis of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy and Constitutionalism in Abuja.
While alleging that democracy and rule of law in Nigeria had been ambushed, Ikeagwuonu said INEC had no reason not to register the group after the stipulated 30 days since it had satisfied all its requirements.
He said, “We are however constrained to draw your attention to the gathering of dark forces against a legitimate process. Our democracy, rule of law and the credibility of our electoral process stands at a crossroads. Conspirators and dark forces have infiltrated INEC; we wish to alert Nigerians to an ugly developement, a black market transaction going on in INEC which if not checked immediately, may murder the rule of law and democracy in Nigeria.
“Information at our disposal shows manipulative, tinkering and leakage of official documentations concerning the ongoing registration process of the African Peoples Congress.”
Ikeagwuonu said the group’s leaders were particularly concerned about the activities “going on in the Legal Department of INEC” where a certain group of senior members of staff are “hellbent on using manipulative and tampered documentation to deny APC registration.”
According to him, African Peoples Congress would not sit back and “watch these dark forces in INEC acting under the influence of a Lagos Mafia to deny APC its constitutional right to registration.”
Ikeagwuonu also berated Lagos-based civil society activists for their comments since his group unveiled its constitution, logo and manifesto.
Leader of the lawyers, Mr. Kelvin Okoro, said LIDC was “ready to render free legal services to African Peoples Congress in the interest of democracy in Nigeria.”
He said, “We singled out the African Peoples Congress case because it is a litmus test for democracy in Nigeria. African Peoples 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, not withstanding whose onus is affected and we expect INEC to do what the law expects them to do. We are not trying to preempt 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).”
But when contacted, INEC’s Director of Information, Mr. Emmanuel Umenger, said the commission does not carry out investigation on the pages of newspapers.
He said, “If there is any allegation, it has not come to us yet. If it comes to us, we will investigate and come out with the result of our investigation. We don’t respond to issues based on hearsay. If the people who made the allegation have facts that such a thing was happening, they should present them to us we will know how to investigate them.
“We don’t investigate allegations that are made on the pages of newspapers. If they have an allegation,they should write to us about certain things that have gone wrong and we will investigate and at the end of investigation, we will have something to say.”
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