Barely a week after the opposition coalition parties approached the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC) to register the All Progressive Congress (APC) as a political party, another rival group.
All Progressive Congress of Nigeria (APCN) has threatened to sue the commission and secure order restraining it from registering any group with such abbreviation.
The group whose name and abbreviation have resemblance with the merger parties (All Progressives Congress) said it commenced it registration process with a letter of intent sent to the commission on March 5, same time as the controversial African Peoples Congress which is also laying claim to the APC abbreviation.
The group, which said in compliance with INEC advice, re-applied for registration inMarch 28 as All Progressive Congress of Nigeria (APCN) Thursday threatened to drag the commission to court to secure injunction stopping it from registering any other group with APC abbreviation.
The National Secretary of the APCN, Oguzie Ikechukwu, told journalists that the party had also, in a similar letter to INEC dated May 22, asked the commission to furnish it with the name of the group it claimed had earlier applied for registration with such abbreviation.
According to him, ?in view of our earlier application with the name All Progressive Congress which you advised us in your letter dated March 15, to change the name as our abbreviation 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 with the abbreviation APC and its application still pending before your commission. We hereby rely on the section 2 and 5 of the Freedom of
Information Act to seek this information.?
Ikechukwu wondered why INEC could not register APCN as a political party even when it has changed from APC to APCN.
Meanwhile, fresh anxiety has gripped the chieftains of the merger parties of APC as INEC set more hurdles for the group before registration.
It was gathered that as part of its requirements for registration, the commission asked the merger parties to furnish it with the addresses of the national officers as required by section 222(a) of the 1999 constitution.
A source at INEC said the application for registration by the merger group did not come with names and addresses of their national officers, rather an application signed by only the national chairmen, secretaries and treasures of the merger political parties.
?There are certainties however that the merger group may suffer the same fate with the rival African Peoples Congress (APC) which the commission earlier rejected its application on similar reason,? he said.
INEC had in a letter signed by its National Secretary, Abdulahi Kaugama, on March 15advised members of the opposition parties coalition planning committee, the APC, to change the name of the merger group, noting that a group had earlier applied for registration with the same abbreviation.
The commission in the letter said: ?To avoid this likely conflict in the abbreviation and 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 abbreviation please.?
