It was never a thought that the current power holders in the country would easily allow the opposition merge and form a stronger, more viable party that would contend with the PDP against the 2015 election, so as Nigerians await the outcome of the application for the registration of the All Progressives Congress (APC), there were indications that the leaders of the merging opposition parties may lay claim to automatic registration after the mandatory 30-day expiry date, which falls on Tuesday.
Against the background of an alleged fresh plot to scuttle the party’s registration at Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a top official of the merging parties, told reporters yesterday that going by the group’s calculation, APC would attain the status of a political party by Wednesday next week.
The party chieftain said the leadership of the merging parties submitted the last registration document on July 1, adding that based on that, Tuesday will be the expiry date of the 30-day deadline for INEC to pronounce the APC registered or it automatically assumes political party status.
“It is on record that the three parties, Action Congress of Nigeria, Congress for Progressive Change and All Nigeria People’s Party, made initial case for a merger on June12 and by July 12, the merger have been concretised through resolutions at the party conventions.
“The date of our final submission of registration materials for APC was July 1 and going by that the 30 days will expire on July 31,” he said.
Following renewed anxiety that the authorities at INEC may be contemplating a decision to ask the merging parties to shop for another name, the leadership of the merger group are said to have secretly drawn a battle line while banking on the expiry date.
Although the official who spoke to reporters insisted the issue of a 30-day deadline has not been raised in any of their discussions with INEC, he nonetheless alluded to the possibility that the coalition may rely on the deadline if the commission decides to prolong the matter.
“What they (INEC) are saying is that there is a matter in court which we did not agree to. The issue of date will not be in contention until Tuesday, July 30, when we would have claimed automatic registration as a political party,” he added.
Also opposing the alleged move to deny APC registration based on clash of acronym, a member of the CPC merger committee, Mr. Osita Okechukwu said there is no way INEC can depend on the posturing of a phony group to refuse to register the new platform being championed by the three major parties.
Okechukwu who spoke in a telephone interview yesterday evening said the only thing for the commission to do is to grant the application of the merger group since there are no restraining orders by the court.
“INEC cannot depend on phony characters to deny us registration and they do not have any basis since there are no subsisting court order restraining INEC. The spirits of the constitution is that phony characters and mischief makers should not be taken seriously and registered as political party. They should register us and then allow us to meet them in court, ” he said.
Okechukwu said the commission has no basis not to register APC because there is no subsisting court order restraining the commission, adding ” it is trite law that you cannot build something out of nothing, therefore INEC has no legal plank to deny APC registration as there is no court order stopping it from registering APC”.