News reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) denied leading opposition parties the opportunity to register as the All Progressive Congress (APC) are false, the commission said on Monday.
Although the opposition parties recently held a national convention in Lagos, where the new party name, logo and acronym were adopted, some newspapers and online media reported on Monday that INEC turned down the party under the claim of a name clash with the African People’s Congress.
“The commission has been drawn to reports in some newspapers today, Monday, April 29, 2013, that it has rejected a bid by some political parties to merge as the All Progressives Congress (APC),” INEC wrote in a statement signed by Kayode R. Idowu, the chief press secretary to the commission.
It said it had not even anticipated such action, and wished to “affirm that the reports in the Nigerian Tribune and the Daily Champion are utterly false” as “the commission has not written to stop the merger bid as APC.”
However, it maintained that its secretary indeed wrote a letter addressing registration on 23rd April 2013 but only to decline an application by another association seeking to register as the All Progressives Congress of Nigeria (APCN), for the reason that the acronym proposed by the association is similar to that of another already seeking registration.
“The commission hereby reassures Nigerians that it will always do the right thing as a dispassionate and impartial regulator of the political process,” the statement added.
