The African Renaissance Party (ARP), one of three additional political parties deregistered on Friday by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has expressed “in unequivocal terms” its acceptance of its deregistration, saying INEC was completely “justified and blameless” in the action.
Announcing the deregistration on Friday, INEC, which earlier deregistered 28 political parties, had argued that its action is compliance with the exercise of its powers, as conferred on it by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act, 2010 (As amended). The affected political parties were the African Renaissance Party (ARP), National Democratic Party (NDP), and National Transformation Party (NTP).
“The African Renaissance Party was deregistered because the composition of National Executive Committee (NEC) fails to meet the requirements of Section 223(1) and of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As Amended),” INEC stated.
INEC also said there was no verifiable headquarters office for the party, in contrast to Section 222(f) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (As amended), and that the party had not won a seat in the National and State Assemblies.
But in a release on Saturday signed by Alhaji Yahaya Ezeemoo Ndu, its national chairman, ARP agreed that the law upon which INEC acted was made by the National assembly of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and not by INEC.
“The law was made about two years ago and, therefore, Nigerian political parties (including the African Renaissance Party) had more than enough time to have challenged the law in court and gotten the law declared null and void as being inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution, but the parties did not. Turning around now to blame and insult INEC is not only stupid but unpatriotic,” a part of the statement read.
“The last convention of the ARP was done right there at the real last functional secretariat of the party at No.10, 53 (Fela Anikulapo Kuti) Road, 5th Avenue, Gwarimpa Estate, Abuja. But when the landlord (Isa Mudi) increased the rent from N650,000 to N1,700,000 and further demanded that we pay two years upfront, we had no option than to quit.
“When INEC came for verification on 17th December 2012, we received them at Number 13, Yaounde Street, Wuse zone 6, Garki, Abuja, where we had hurriedly arranged. How can we now say that INEC deregistered us out of spit or any such nonsense? The world knows that we further did not win any seat at either the national or any state assembly.”
Ndu said that as the Founder and National Chairman of the party, and a native of Oghe in Ezeagu Local Government Area of Enugu State, he would always respect the sacredness of the truth.
“The African Renaissance Party, for as long as I lead it, would prefer to die on the path of truth than to live on the side of lies and falsehood,” he said.
“As for us in the African Renaissance Party, we shall double our efforts, try and overcome our inadequacies indicated by INEC in the letter of de-registration and reapply to INEC for re-registration. In the meantime, we thank INEC and the good and long-suffering people of Nigeria for giving us such a golden opportunity to take active part in the task of national development.”
