PDP Disowns New APC, Accuses ACN Of Creating Crisis

CONTROVERSY over the emergence of African Peoples Congress and others using the acronym ‘APC’ got messier Saturday with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) disowning its promotion.
Rather, the ruling party accused the opposition Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) of creating the body and similar ones to attract sympathy from the public.
This is coming, as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has not listed any new political party on its website, signifying that the commission has not registered the controversial APC or any other one for that matter.
The website has only the 25 names of the political parties (one of them registered only in November 2012) that survived its deregistration hammer of 28 parties on December 6, 2012.
The PDP has been under fire from the merging All Progressives Congress (APC) since the appearance of the shadowy African Peoples Congress, which also uses the ellipsis, ‘APC’.
The merger parties had alleged that the PDP and the Presidency, working hand in glove with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), were complicit in the formation of the mysterious APC, and its application to the commission for registration as a political party.
The emergence of another abridged All Patriotic Citizens (APC) on Thursday, even as the rival African Peoples Congress was unveiling its national headquarters, logo, manifesto and constitution to the public, added to the confusion that had seized the polity in the past weeks.
Although the All Patriotic Citizens, which also unveiled its documents and secretariat in Abuja, said it was withdrawing its application to INEC, thus leaving two ‘APCs’ on the laps of the commission, the PDP said the ACN was responsible for the crisis rocking the merger arrangement of some opposition parties.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, in Abuja, the PDP also dismissed as untrue, speculation that it was behind the formation of the African Peoples Congress, to create an acronym crisis for the merging parties.
The statement reads in part: “We wish to state here that the PDP is not responsible for the ill fate already befalling the ill conceived merger of opposition groups.
“We strongly suspect that the current drama on ownership of name may have been contrived by the ACN to attract attention to themselves and earn undue sympathy.
“This plot has played out in the sudden emergence and withdrawal of a third group bearing the acronym APC.”
Metuh said the question is, could the merger group be creating a scenario where they would compete within themselves and claim “victory” after overheating the polity with phantom parties?
Holding that the capacity of the opposition for mischief had never been in doubt, he said the PDP would not be surprised to find out at the end of the day that “the merger parties are behind this needless crisis.”
It added.
According to him, no member of the PDP was involved in the formation of any other political organisation, neither were they interested in the activities of any other party.
He noted that the alleged involvement of one Ugochinyere Imo Ikenga in the formation of the other APC had no bearing whatsoever on the PDP.
“From our findings, Mr. Ikenga’s recent activities, including his unsavoury attacks and illicit campaign for the dissolution of the Bamanga Tukur-led National Working Committee (of the PDP) makes him an estranged fellow and therefore can never be an agent of the PDP in anyway,” he said.
However, Metuh said the PDP welcomes a strong and virile opposition and does not feel threatened by the emergence of any group.
“We have no cause to frustrate any alliance as we have always defeated such coalitions in the recent past,” he said.
“The PDP remains focused on strengthening its bond with the Nigerian people and will not be distracted by self-inflicted chaos among a rudderless group without an agenda of service to the Nigerian people.”
Meanwhile, the battle by three political associations over which of them owns or should use the acronym, ‘APCs’, may after all be a media affair.
Reason: None of the disputing association’s name — the All Progressives Congress (APC), African Peoples Congress (APC) and All Patriotic Citizens (APC) — is on the INEC website, as a perusal by The Guardian revealed yesterday.
Specifically, the African Peoples Congress, which has raised the dust these past weeks, has not been registered by the INEC.
The website has only the 25 names of existing political parties, which survived the commission’s deregistration hammer of 28 parties on December 6, 2012.
The entire names, which include the National Conscience Party (NCP), are: Accord (A), Action Alliance (AA), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Advanced Congress of Democrats (ACD), Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Alliance for Democracy (AD), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), African Peoples Alliance (APA), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).
The rest are: Citizens Popular Party (CPP), Democratic Peoples Party (DPP), Kowa Party (KP), Labour Party (LP), Mega Progressive Peoples Party (MPPP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), People for Democratic Change (PDC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA), Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP), United Democratic Party (UDP), and the United Progressive Party (UPP), that was registered in November 2012.
The NCP recently took INEC to court in anticipation of the commission’s threat to further deregister some political parties. However, the court ruled on March 6, 2013 that the commission has power to de-list parties.
Even though the emerging All Progressives Congress has not submitted a letter of intent on the proposed party, the INEC has posted on its website newspaper reports/analyses about the association’s activities.
Such materials, headlined, ‘APC Registration: Why INEC Must Tread Carefully’, ‘The APC Marching On’, and ‘Merger This Time’ were posted as recently as February 18, March 13 and March 14, 2013, respectively.
On December 18, 2012, the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, while defending the commission’s action against the 28 parties, promised that the electoral body would soon commence registration of new political parties “that meet the requirements for registration.”
Those requirements are provided in Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which, among others, states that:
• No association by whatever name called shall function as a party, unless the names and addresses of its national officers are registered with the Independent National Electoral Commission.
• The membership of the association is open to every citizen of Nigeria irrespective of his place of origin, circumstance of birth, sex, religion or ethnic grouping.
• A copy of its constitution is registered in the principal office of the INEC in such form as may be prescribed by the INEC; any alteration in its registered constitution is also registered in the principal office of the Independent National Electoral Commission within 30 days of the making of such alteration.
• The name of the association, its symbol or logo does not contain any ethnic or religious connotation or give the appearance that the activities of the association are confined to a part only of the geographical area of Nigeria.
• The headquarters of the association is situated in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Going by these constitutional provisions, none of the disputing political associations has met the requirements for registration; certainly not the African Peoples Congress (APC), or All Patriotic Citizens, whose promoters claimed otherwise in Abuja on Thursday.
At the unveiling of the association’s logo, manifesto, constitution and national secretariat, the National Chairman of the African Peoples Congress, Chief Onyinye Ikeagwuonu, brandished before journalists an acknowledgement letter from the INEC, based on the association’s letter of intent to the commission.
Similarly, at a press conference in Abuja, the National Director of Operation of the All Peoples Citizens, Mr. Oliver Ike, released a statement, indicating that the group had submitted its application to INEC for registration.
The application, dated March 8, 2013, bore INEC’s acknowledgement stamp of March 11, 2013.
With its membership consisting of “patriotic Nigerians that have genuine concern for the plight of Nigerian masses,” the association’s national office is situated at Plot 1385, Gurara Street, off IBB Way, Maitama, Abuja, and its logo consists of a slanted lantern.
According to Ike: “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.”
The association has reportedly withdrawn its application to INEC, citing the need to “eschew politics of bitterness.”
Nonetheless, leaders of the merging opposition parties, led by Chief Tom Ikimi, maintained that for weeks, they had sensitised Nigerians, including the INEC, about their plan to merge.
This, they said, culminated in the February 6, 2013 press conference to announce the agreement of the parties to merge under the name, ‘All progressives Congress’.
“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 group said on Thursday in Abuja.
While stressing that they had begun all requirements to formalise their merger under the name, APC, the leaders said they were socked when INEC said it had received a letter from a “faceless and an unknown group” with the acronym, APC.
“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,” the parties said.
They said they had written to the INEC on the development and advised it not to allow its credibility to be undermined by political hirelings and their faceless sponsors.
Insisting that the coming of the African Peoples Congress and the All Patriotic Citizens was clearly “the hands of Esau, but the voice of Jacob,” the parties said they would not go back on their determination to be registered as APC.
“We are determined to pursue the registration,” they said. “Those who are 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.
“There is only one APC and Nigerians know this. Moreover, it is the people that makes parties and not mere admission of names.”
Actually, the “promoters” of the other APCs came out on Thursday in Abuja to defend their actions by unveiling their association’s logo, manifesto, constitution and administrative headquarters.