Following recent news that the new mega-party being formed, the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) might not get registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and will have to change name, one of its major partners, the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) has remained insistent that the APC will not change name.
It also said that no court can compel the electoral umpire to not register the new opposition party it is forming together with the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and the All Nigeria Peoples’ Party (ANPP).
This was disclosed by the National Publicity Secretary of the CPC, Mr. Rotimi Fashakin, on Saturday.
He said “It’s too late in the day for anybody to try anything funny with our registration. No court can stop INEC from registering APC.
“We have followed the proper procedure what is left is purely administrative.
“The African Peoples’ Congress which was set up in a hurry by the PDP was disqualified by INEC.
“We are not losing sleep because at this point, we cannot be compelled to change name when it is clear that the APC acronym is free for our use. When we get registered, anybody who has issues with, it can go to court.
According to him, the law was clear about the procedure for the registration of political parties.
This, he said, had made the registration imminent because, “the law says if after 30 days we don’t hear from INEC, we are deemed to have been registered.
“We had our various conventions and submitted our documents 27 days ago. All I can tell you now is, no shaking.”
When contacted, National Publicity Secretary of the ACN, Lai Mohammed said, “We will issue a robust statement tomorrow (Sunday).
His counterpart in the All Nigeria Peoples Party, Mr. Emma Eneukwu did not pick his calls.
Meanwhile, two senior lawyers, who spoke in separate interviews with one of our correspondents, agreed with INEC on their powers to advise the party to change its name.
Mr. Yusuf Ali (SAN) noted that since confusion over the identity of parties contesting an election was one of the factors that could lead to the nullification of the results of an election, the electoral commission would be in order if it advised a prospective party to change its name.
He said, “Two parties cannot bear the same name, just like when you are incorporating a company. INEC cannot register two names that look alike, that will confuse the electorate. INEC will be justified to ask a party to change its name if there are two parties with the same name.
“This is because one of the issues that can lead to the nullification of an election is when parties have the same name leading to confusion among the electorate.”
Also, Mr, Mike Ahamba (SAN) said INEC can ask the APC to change its name.
“They (INEC) can advise the party (APC) to change name in order to avoid a conflict.
“If I am a member of the APC and if they ask me, I would have advised them to get another name a long time ago,” Ahamba said.
There are indications that the INEC may suspend the registration of the APC.
It was learnt on Friday that the decision to halt the registration was reached at a meeting involving the National Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, and other top officials of the commission on Tuesday.
It was gathered that besides putting the APC’s registration in abeyance, INEC might write the merging parties on Tuesday, to choose another name.