Barely a week after the All Progressive Congress, APC, applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to be registered as a political party, a rival group, All Progressive Congress of Nigeria, APCN, has threatened to drag the Commission to court to secure an order restraining it from registering any group with such acronym.
This is as the INEC has set more hurdles for the APC before it secures registration. The Commission wants the group to furnish it with the addresses of the national officers as required by section 222(a) of the 1999 constitution. Sources within the Commission say that the application for registration by APC did not include names and addresses of their national officers. Only names of the national chairmen, secretaries and treasures of the merging political parties signed it.
The rival APC which commenced its registration process with a letter of intent sent to the Commission on the 5th of March, 2013, had been advised to change its name, as a similar group had earlier applied with same acronym.
INEC in a reply dated March 15 and signed by its national secretary, Abdulahi Kaugama, advised the group “to avoid this likely conflict in acronym,” adding that “in our view of the fact that the other application was received earlier than the one you submitted, you are advised to re –submit the application under a different acronym please.”
Although the group in compliance with INEC advice, re-applied for registration in March 28 as All Progressive Congress of Nigeria, APCN, INEC again advised it to change the name for the same reason that another group with similar acronym had earlier approached the Commission. National secretary of the party, Oguzie Ikechukwu, saying that the party had in a letter to INEC dated May 22, requested details of the group it claimed and had earlier applied for registration under such acronym.
“In view of our earlier application with the name, All Progressive Congress which you advise us in your letter dated 15 march , 2013 to change name as our acronym is similar to that of another association seeking registration,we therefore demand to be furnished with the name and application of any association whose name is All Progressive Congress of acronym APC and its application is still pending before your commission. We hereby rely on the section 2 and 5 of the Freedom of information Act to seek this information.”
The group said it was surprised that INEC cannot register it as a political party even when it has changed from APC to APCN.
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