THIRD "APC" EMERGES

A third group sharing the acronym APC has filed a letter of intent to be registered as a political party with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The name it seeks is All Patriotic Citizens (APC). On Monday, the African Peoples Congress (APC) filed a letter of intent INEC.

The development has further worsened the troubles of the merging opposition political parties to be known as the All Progressives Congress (APC). The opposition parties are yet to file any letters of intent for its new party to be registered with the INEC.

But the opposition parties are crying blue murder, vowing never to let go their name and acronym, since they were the first to announce to Nigerians and the whole world the name of their new party-to-be. They said the name and acronym remain their intellectual property.

The parties alleged that they have it on good authority that the establishment has set up a high-powered team headed by a 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 opposition further warned that over and above the collective correspondence the merging parties sent to INEC, each of them has communicated to INEC the assurance that the processes stipulated in the Electoral Act are accordingly ongoing towards the consummation of the merger.

INEC will not register political parties with the same acronym going by the Electoral Act. Against this backdrop, it is viewed by observers that the scheming is geared towards scuttling the opposition parties.

The African Peoples Congress went ahead to unveil their logo, flags and party headquarters in Abuja yesterday.

‘APC is our intellectual property’
The merging opposition political parties yesterday in Abuja declared that the acronym of their platform, All Progressives Congress (APC), is and remains their intellectual property.

They vowed to pursue the process of its registration to its logical conclusion in the interest of “dear fatherland”.

Addressing a press conference, chairman of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) Chief Tom Ikimi, flanked by Alhaji Ibrahim Shekarau, Senator Annie Okonkwo and Alhaji Garba Gadi representing other parties in the merger, said the name and acronym “APC” have become the intellectual property of the merging parties since February 6, 2013, as they have received wide publicity in the print and electronic media.

Ikimi warned that the feeble attempt by any other entity to pretend to use the same acronym is an exercise in futility, because it amounts to what, in law, is called “passing off”.

He said the group had, for several weeks now, put the country and indeed the whole world on notice about the decision of three registered political parties, namely, the ACN, All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) to merge into one formidable party for the purpose, among others, of accentuating political competitiveness, providing a viable alternative political platform and promoting the much-desired political change in the governance of the country.

According to Ikimi, all legal and constitutional processes required to formalise the merger and register the new party with INEC in the name of All Progressive Congress (APC) are already in progress, in top gear and includes its earlier announcement on February 6, 2013, of the decision of the three parties to merge.

He said: “Prior to the adoption of the name, we had carried out a careful search of the existing names of all parties with extant registration in Nigeria and, finding out that none had the name All Progressive Congress nor the acronym, we chose the name and unveiled it. Thus, by that public announcement, the name All Progressive Congress and the acronym APC became our intellectual property which we shall guard jealously.

“It has therefore come to us as a rude shock that the INEC would announce receipt of a letter from what is known to be a faceless and unknown political group ostensibly driven by sheer mischief purporting to request for registration with the name African Peoples Congress.

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.”

Continuing, Ikimi stated: “Unfortunately, we have 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.

“We have taken the pains to furnish the foregoing facts because we will not accept any attempt by INEC, relying on a dubious application clearly not in compliance with the conditions set out in the constitution or the Electoral Act, to scuttle our plans to formalise our merger under our adopted name and acronym.

New APC unveils identity
Falling out of a prior application before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for registration as a political party, the newly formed African Peoples Congress (APC) also yesterday disclosed its identity with the official unveiling of its logo, flag, constitution, manifesto, slogan, membership card, national officers and a protem national chairman, Chief Onyinye Ikeagwuonu.

The APC stated that it was poised to create a “people’s alternative” that will eventually break the “axis of evil” the current political parties in government have subjected Nigerians to since 1999.

In a speech delivered in Abuja by its national chairman “to mark the end of completion of the constitutional process for registration as a political party by INEC”, he regretted that since 1999 Nigerians have entrusted their political fortunes in the hands of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and other politicians who have shown “a resounding emptiness of character, clearly unfit for any kind of leadership”.

Ikeagwuonu said: “Since 1999, all we have to show for their political dominance is purposeless and rudderless leadership that has added little or no value to the lives and welfare of the average Nigerian.

The collective achievements of these contraptions called PDP, ACN, and ANPP can best be likened to the dance of the penguins – one step forward, two steps backward - and the woes of our country continue to evolve from bad to worse.

“With the economy of the states wound round monthly allocations and diverted council funds, the governors of the PDP shuttle across the globe in private jets that further diminish the resources of their states, leaving the people to bear the brunt.

As a matter of urgent national importance, we urge the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to immediately commence investigation into the source of fund used to purchase the private jets by these public officers.”

Ikeagwuonu took a swipe at the new opposition merger, All Progressive Congress (APC), tagging it an “alliance of political desperadoes”.

The party sought to clear the perceived misconceptions. It insisted that it applied to INEC for registration through a lawyer whose services it retained and a letter duly submitted to the commission. Subsequently, the party stated, it got a reply from INEC stipulating requirements and preconditions for registration.

Within the period, it paid the N1million administrative and processing fee stipulated by the commission, said Ikeagwuonu. “Today we have submitted the long list of requirements as prescribed by INEC and have completed the constitutional demand on us for registration as a political party. Accordingly, INEC has duly acknowledged our submission and this is the INEC-endorsed letter to that effect.”

Another APC emerges, unveils logo in Abuja
Another twist was added to the scenario when a new party emerged in Abuja with the name “All Patriotic Citizens”, laying claim to the already controversial acronym of APC.

The new group, at a press conference yesterday, unveiled its logo bearing a lantern symbol and a manifesto in which it said it is “completely committed to liberal democratic and constitutional governance and shall at all times protect and promote them”.

According to an application letter obtained by LEADERSHIP which was addressed to the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) dated March 8, 2013, and acknowledged by the commission on March 11, 2013, the group said it has existed for the past two years as a pressure group, hence it is requesting the approval of INEC for their group to function as a political party in Nigeria. The letter was signed by the group’s national director of operation, Mr. Oliver Chidi Ike.

The headed letter paper of the new group indicates Plot 1385 Gurara Street, Off IBB Way, Maitama, Abuja, as its office address.

The preamble of APC’s manifesto reads in part, “All Patriotic Citizens is a political association of patriotic Nigerians who have genuine concern for the plight of our nation and are determined to work together irrespective of tribe, religion, sex, e.t.c. to reposition our country Nigeria for peaceful co-existence of all.

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.”

We shall surpass INEC hurdles – ANPP chairman
The national chairman of the ANPP, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has assured that irrespective of the current hurdles facing the formal registration of the new party with INEC, the APC shall be registered, and will be ready to face the ruling PDP within the next couple of months.

Onu expressed these convictions on Wednesday while receiving the delegation of the stakeholders of the ANPP in Bauchi State led by Senator Mohammed A. Mohammed, who paid him a courtesy call at the national secretariat of the party in Abuja.

The ANPP national chairman, also noted that the driving philosophy behind the formation of the merger political party was not to compete for political power but to solve the myriad of problems currently facing the nation, as the new party is made up of respectable politicians from different parts of the nation with hands-on experience on how to redeem the dwindling fortunes of the nation.

In his welcome address to the nine-man delegation from Bauchi, Dr Onu said, ‘‘The APC will do a lot for Nigeria. One, it will change the way politics is played in Nigeria. We will move the country away from politics of personality to issues-based and ideas-driven politics.

‘‘Politics of personality is divisive; it uses things that divide like religion and ethnic sentiments. But ideas-based politics unites everybody; for example if some people are poor in Ekiti, others are poor in Ebonyi, and yet others poor in Jigawa State, they will all agree on the same issue on poverty.

SOURCE : LEADERSHIP