INEC Has Registered APC...Akande

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has been registered as a political party, its National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande, said yesterday.

APC comprises the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria People Party (ANPP), a part of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the Democratic Peoples Party (DPP).

The parties merged to provide a formidable opposition and provide an alternative party to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and a platform for positive change.

Akande addressed reporters in Abuja after receiving a delegation of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) at the party’s National Secretariat on Bissau Street, Wuse Zone 6.

Pressed to state how soon the party would be registered, the former Osun State governor said: “The law is clear about that; we are already registered.”

Akande explained that APC members had been confident that no power on earth would hinder the group from being registered as a political party.

According to him, the group completed the merger process the day it submitted its request to the INEC.

He said: “We have always been confident from the beginning that no power under the sun would stop us from becoming a political party.”

The party chairman said INEC did not ask the merging parties any question.

Akande said: “They asked us no question. They gave us notice that they were coming to visit us and they visited us.”

The INEC officials, in compliance with the civil service rule, inspected the party’s secretariat. Reporters saw them but did not hear what they discussed.

It was, however, gathered that the four-man delegation was led by the Director, Political Parties Monitoring, Mr. Ibrahim Shittu.

Shittu said the commission visited the APC national secretariat for administrative investigation and to ascertain whether the party complied with the stipulated procedure.

Akande said he was happy that from the beginning of the merger the party succeeded in presenting a joint application to the INEC.

The party chairman said prior to the visit, INEC and APC were only exchanging correspondence.

He added that yesterday’s investigation was to confirm whether or not the party actually existed and where it was located.

Akande added: “We have proved to them that we exist as gentlemen and in a befitting accommodation.

“From the beginning of this exercise, we have gone to various conventions. We have made a joint application and we have been exchanging correspondence with the INEC. But they have never visited us before and we never visited them.

“But today (yesterday), the INEC came to see us in our home. They were happy that we have got a home. When they met us, through our attendance register they discovered that we belong to a party of gentlemen – the All Progressives Congress. They became very happy.”

Those present at the APC secretariat yesterday were the former House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Masari; former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai; former Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi; Osita Okechukwu; APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed; his deputy, Hajia Hannatu Musawa, among others.INEC