Top opposition leaders, including former Head of State and three-time presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, are threatening to take action against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and issuing dark warnings about conspiracies by President Goodluck Jonathan and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to stop the registration of the mega opposition All Progressive Congress (APC) party.
Huhuonline.com had broken the story last February 13, that the merger of opposition political parties that gave birth to the APC was causing considerable anxiety within Aso Rock to the extent that President Jonathan had ordered covert operations by vice-president Namadi Sambo to sabotage the new party, that has radically altered the political landscape, and threatens to give Jonathan and the PDP a run for their money come 2015.
The chickens started coming home to roost yesterday when a controversy erupted after INEC indicated that another political party called the African Peoples Congress with the same acronym (APC) has already been floated, implying the opposition APC merger has to be registered under a different name. This drew outrage and condemnation from the opposition APC stakeholders who accused the INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, of working in tandem with the shadowy group to frustrate the first APC.
Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, of the ANPP in the opposition APC saw the move as confirmation that INEC was an uncircumcised appendage of the PDP. He accused INEC of massive corruption, and collusion with the PDP. Buhari said: “INEC had always worked with the PDP. There is no doubt about it. And Jega is a card-carrying member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). As far as I am concerned, he is a fascist. The registration of the real APC depends on the government of the day and their fronts who are in INEC.
“But let me assure you that this dirty trick and this funny idea of sending some people to go and get the APC registered would not at the end of it change the nature and the mission of the real APC. Should INEC choose not to register the party, the individuals and the parties involved in the real APC are in my view, politically mature, sophisticated to find an easy alternative. Any of the parties that has been announced to be party to the merger can be used as a vehicle to defeat the PDP.”
Another opposition party in the APC coalition, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) described INEC’s intention to register the African Peoples Congress as “ignoble, subversive and meant to forestall the registration of the authentic APC, based on the flimsy argument that both possess the same acronym.” In a statement issued in Enugu by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, the CNPP urged the INEC “to resist the temptation of PDP’s covert move to register the APC, for prior to February 6, 2013 when the All Progressives Congress (APC) was formed, there was no such application in INEC.”
On his part, Second Republic Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, was categorical that the emergence of the African Peoples Congress (APC) was a sinister plot masterminded by INEC. “Consequently, we challenge INEC to publish the names of the promoters of African Peoples Congress to prove that it is not as alleged in merger with PDP. The INEC should also go further to investigate the allegation that the proposed APC is being floated by the PDP as a way of foisting one party system on the country.”
But the INEC boss, Prof. Attahiru Jega has come out strongly to distance INEC from the shadowy APC, and insisting that the new APC was well ahead of the widely known APC floated by political giants like Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) and Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu. Jega explained that some persons, whose identities he however declined to mention had last week submitted the request for the registration of the African Peoples Congress (APC) as a political party.
Jega, through his media aide, Mr. Kayode Idowu, ld Huhuonline.com that INEC was yet to receive a request for the registration of the widely known APC, but he confirmed the worst fears of the opposition when he disclosed that a checklist would be carried out by INEC to ascertain which of the APCs would merit registration in the end.
Idowu discounted widespread allegations that INEC was working in tandem with the PDP to stop the registration of the widely known APC, saying the law does not authorize INEC to disclose the names of those behind political parties. “There is a group that has applied to INEC to be registered as African Peoples Congress (APC). The application was made last week. I can’t give the identity of those behind it. The law has itemised the criteria to be fulfilled to be registered as a party and INEC is indifferent to who has applied to be registered as a party so long as the criteria are right. So, if a group comes up and says it wants to register a party with a name, what does INEC have to do with it? As we speak today, there is only one applicant. The All Progressive Congress (APC) has not applied to INEC yet.”
Political watchers have described yesterday’s development as a new low by an angry and embittered President Jonathan, whom Huhuonline.com had earlier reported was having white nights at the prospect of facing a united opposition candidate in 2015.
A source in the presidency told Huhuonline.com that Jonathan has assigned the Vice President to chair a team of inner circle loyalists to work out a strategy that would guarantee him victory if he wins the South-south, South-east and North-central zones as the Presidency believes the stronghold of the APC would be concentrated in the South-west states of Lagos, Ogun, Osun, Ekiti and Oyo, where the PDP is fancying its chances that it will at least score 25%.
In the North-west, PDP sources said Jonathan will encounter problems in Sokoto and Kebbi, but will still get over 25% of the votes cast; and 30% in Jigawa State, even if Sule Lamido decamps to the APC; while vice-president Namadi Sambo will deliver Kaduna to Jonathan.
Presidential sources worry that the APC is already showing enough staying power in Adamawa and Taraba States, while Bauchi, Gombe, Borno and Yobe will become battleground states. In the North-central states of Benue, Plateau, Kogi and Kwara, Jonathan is certain to win big, but is not sure about Niger and Nasarawa States.
