Three political groups fight over APC identity
The national secretariat of the African Peoples Congress in Abuja ... on Thursday
Confusion over the use of the acronym,
APC, worsened on Thursday as a third group, the All Patriotic
Citizens, which is seeking registration as a political party, laid
claim to it.
Two groups – the All Progresssives
Congress and the African Peoples Congress – had earlier engaged in a war
of words over the ownership of the acronym.
The All Patriotic Citizens and the
African Peoples Congress said they had submitted their registration
applications to the Independent National Electoral Commission for
registration as political parties.
But the merger committee of the sponsors
of the All Progresssives Congress – the Action Congress of Nigeria, the
Congress for Progressive Change, the All Nigeria Peoples Party and the
All Progressive Grand Alliance – said there was no going back on the
decision by the group to use the acronym.
“We have informed the whole world of our
decision to merge under the name All Progressive Congress with acronym,
APC,”the Chairman of merger committee, Chief Tom Ikimi, said during a
press conference in
Abuja.
“We are determined to pursue the process
to its logical conclusion in the interest of our fatherland. The feeble
attempt by any other entity to pretend to use the same acronym is an
exercise in futility which must fail because it amounts to what in law
is called passing off,” ”Ikimi added.
But as the press conference went on, the
National Director of Operation, All Patriotic Citizens, Mr. Oliver
Ike, released a statement in which he said that the group had
submitted its application for registration to INEC.
“We are committed to the re-engineering
of our political, economic and social foundations to eschew politics of
bitterness and build a new, united and prosperous Nigeria under good
democratic governance,” Ike stated.
A copy of the application, which was
made available to one of our correspondents, was dated March 8, 2013.
INEC’s acknowledgement stamp was dated March 11, 2013.
The political group’s logo includes a lantern. It has its national office at Plot 1385 Gurara Street, Off IBB Street, Abuja.
The group said that its membership consisted of patriotic Nigerians that had genuine concern for the plight of Nigerian masses.
Besides the All Patriotic Citizens, the
African Peoples Congress on Thursday beat the merger parties’ APC to the
submission of requirements for its registration.
The party also unveiled its logo,
manifesto and constitution with a call on Nigerians to reject
“over-recycled forces that are totally spent and without equivocation.”
The National Chairman of the African
Peoples Congress, Chief Onyinye Ikeagwuonu, in his speech at the event,
faulted all the allegations by the ACN, CPC, ANPP and APGA.
He said, “Today, we have submitted the
long list of requirements as prescribed by INEC and have completed the
constitution demand on us for registration as a political party.”
Ikeagwuonu stated that INEC had acknowledged the party’s application.
He said that the ACN, CPC, ANPP and
APGA had not submitted any application to INEC, adding that his APC had
even paid N1m administrative fee.
Ikeagwuonu added, “They said we did not
apply to INEC for registration: First and foremost, we applied to INEC
through a lawyer, whose services we retained and our letter was duly
submitted to INEC. Subsequent to that, we got a reply from INEC
stipulating requirements and preconditions for registration.
“They said we have not paid a kobo of
the processing fee to INEC, the precondition for processing an
application: Contrary to the hallucinations of the merger group, within
the period we paid the N1m administrative and processing fee stipulated
by the commission.”
According to him, politicians in the
Peoples Democratic Party, ACN, ANPP, CPC have shown “a resounding
emptiness of character, clearly unfit for any kind of leadership.”
He said that the ACN, ANPP, CPC and
APGA found it more rewarding “idling away on the pages of newspapers”
while his group pursued an aspiration it had held for almost two years.
Ikeagwuonu accused the four parties of
total lack of capacity in taking care of the least basic responsibility
in the process of party registration.
He said, “If the merger group were
sincere in the quest for an alternative platform for Nigerians, they
would have settled down to build it. But of course, they cannot because
they are used to buying it. Now, their frustration has found the usual
outlet in name-calling; all of which amounts to brinkmanship that does
not and can never translate to registration of a political party.”
But explaining their position, the merger partners said for several weeks, they had told Nigerians their plan to merge.
They also said that their accredited
leaders addressed a press conference in Abuja on February 6, when they
announced the agreement of the parties to merge under the name, the All
Progressives Congress.
The group said, “The name and acronym
have therefore become the intellectual property of the merging parties
since February 6, 2013 and it has received very wide publicity in the
print and electronic media.”
The parties added that they had begun all requirements to formalise their merger under the new name, APC.
They said that they were shocked when
INEC said that it had received a letter from “a faceless and unknown
group” using the acronym, APC.
The parties said, “The obvious motive
of this letter is to attempt, albeit in futility, to scuttle the
registration of the All Progressives Congress which has been so widely
publicised and well-received to the discomfort of the establishment.”`
They said that thay had it on good
authority that “the establishment, gravely troubled by the emergence of a
united opposition has set up a high-powered team headed by a very high
ranking officer of government and furnished with unlimited resources
from public funds with a clear mandate to corrupt the democratic
institutions and destabilise the opposition.”
The parties added that they had
written to INEC on the development and advised the commission not to
allow its credibility to be undermined by political hirelings and their
faceless sponsors.
According to them, what they see “is clearly the hands of Esau, but the voice of Jacob.”
They also vowed not to allow INEC to scuttle their merger.
They said the emergence of the African
Peoples Congress and the All Patriotic Citizens was an attempt to deny
them the merger plan.
Ikimi said, “We are determined to
pursue the registration. Those who are also going about with names that
have our acronym are doing so with the knowledge that their actions
would amount to nothing.
“We will not accept attempt by INEC to
deny us registration or scuttle our registration. Let the promoters of
other parties come out and defend their actions.
“The major adversaries to the
opposition are people in the ruling party and if there are people
playing pranks with that, you cannot look further than the ruling party.
“There is only one APC and Nigerians
know this. Moreover, it is the people that make parties and not by mere
submission of names.”
Ikimi said the opposition would not be
bothered if President Goodluck Jonathan decides to run in 2015, adding
that “anybody that the PDP presents would fail”.
Others present at the news conference
were the Chairman of the Merger Committee of the ANPP, Alhaji Ibrahim
Shekarau and his CPC counterpart, Alhaji Garba Gadi, as well as
Senator Annie Okonkwo, who represented a faction of APGA.