Interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande has expressed confidence that the yet-unregistered party resulting from the merger of some political parties would defeat the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.
Coincidentally, while Akande was declaring that nothing would stop the party from achieving the feat, a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and former Governor of Adamawa, Boni Haruna found his way back to the PDP, explaining that there is no way the APC can defeat President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 presidential elections.
The ex-governor, who received his PDP membership card from a faction of the party loyal to Bamanga Tukur, the party’s national chairman, against the incumbent governor, Murtala Nyako, in Mizan ward said his supporters would be joining him very soon.
The former senatorial candidate on the platform of the ACN in the 2011 election said his sojourn in the ACN was to temporarily settle down politically, adding that he was fully back in the PDP to ensure the party’s success in future elections.
Meanwhile, in Abuja, Bisi Akande maintained that the APC is the party to beat in the 2015 general elections. He was speaking during an inspection tour of the APC secretariat, located at 6 Bissau Street, Zone 6, Wuse District, Abuja, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as part of the process leading to the party’s registration.
According to Akande, the members of the party have always been confident that no power under the sun will stop the party from getting registered as a political party. He said every step has been taken by the merging parties to meet the registration requirements and that an application was jointly made by all the merging parties to INEC for the registration of the APC.
Calling his party an association of gentlemen, Chief Akande said: “From the beginning of this merger negotiation, we have gone to various conventions, we have made joint applications and we have been exchanging correspondence with INEC but they have never visited us.
“So today INEC came to see us in our home, and they are happy we have got a home. When INEC team met us through our attendance register, they discovered that we belong to a party of gentlemen, APC.
“We have completed the merger phase of the exercise. INEC now needs administrative investigation to show that what we have done is according to their laid-down procedures; and because of that, they kept writing to us and we were replying them.
“Today, they came for verifications as to whether we exist, and where we exist. We have proven to them that we exist like gentlemen and in a befitting accommodation.”
Interim National Secretary of APC, Tijjani Tumsah confirmed Akande’s assertion, saying the commission came with the expectation of seeing some things that the party was able to deliver.
Assuring that everything is in good shape, he said the party was expecting to hear a confirmation of its registration from INEC, whose Political Parties Monitoring and Liaison (PPML) team was led by its Director, Ibrahim Shittu.
