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| National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria, Mr. Lai Mohammed |
The Action Congress of Nigeria on Sunday
said the All Progressives Congress had met all the needed requirements
for its registration by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The party made this known in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed.
The ACN noted that despite the “antics
and the challenges of some negative forces” in the polity, the electoral
umpire would do what was right concerning the APC registration.
It therefore dismissed as speculative
the report that INEC was planning to write a letter to the promoters of
APC to find another name following a court case instituted by a
political association over the APC acronym.
The party said, “We are convinced that
INEC has no discernible reason to write such a letter to us. In the
first instance, there exists no court injunction anywhere restraining
the commission from registering APC. There could be many court cases,
but until there is a court order, no one can preempt what a court will
do and act on that basis.
“Again, we have met all the stipulated
requirements. INEC has also inspected our proposed headquarters in Abuja
and sighted all our interim officers. The merger process may be novel,
but we have played according to the rules and we expect nothing less
from INEC.”
The party also expressed satisfaction
with the statement credited to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega,
that there was no court injunction compelling the commission to stop the
merger.
The ACN added, “We believe we are on the
same page with INEC as far as this trail-brazing merger is concerned,
and that has been confirmed by the INEC spokesman, and we therefore call
on the commission to do the proper thing right now – which is the
registration of APC.
“There is no doubt that INEC is under
tremendous pressure, from both the card-carrying Peoples Democratic
Party members of the commission and their collaborators, who are
mortally afraid of the merger, and who will want the electoral body to
commence, right now, the process of rigging the 2015 election in their
favour.
“But we urge INEC not to compromise its
neutrality and integrity by acting contrary to the law. We remind the
Commission that Nigerians are keenly watching how it will handle this
merger issue, and whatever it does will determine whether Nigerians can
count on it to organise free, fair and credible elections in 2015.
“Given the already over-heated polity
ahead of the 2015 elections, we believe INEC will not do anything that
will aggravate the situation.”
Meanwhile, the ACN has appealed to all the supporters of APC to remain calm over the registration issue.
The ACN said, “We know that many of our
teeming supporters are upset by the report of the shenanigans in INEC
over this issue. But it is important for them to remain law-abiding as
we await the decision of INEC. We are confident, going by the words of
INEC itself that the court case instituted by those laying claim to the
APC acronym has no bearing on what is going on.”
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