BY Fredrick Nwabufo
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has alleged that some people, “apparently-hired hands”, plan to relaunch the acronym battle against the party by seeking to register three new parties bearing the acronyms of the same parties that merged to become the APC.
The registered APC was embroiled in an acronym battle with the unregistered African Peoples Congress (APC) in 2013, soon after its merger.
The party, through its national publicity secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, alleged that those behind the “phantom parties” had applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to register the Allied Council of Nigeria (ACN), Advanced National Patriotic Party (ANPP), and Conservative People’s Congress (CPC).
It said the fact that the acronyms of the three entities tallied with those of the APC component parties (ACN, ANPP and CPC) was not accidental, but “a grand design by those who had been having sleepless nights since the APC was registered”.
”It is worthy of note that the three applications to INEC for the registration of the three organisations as political parties were made on the same day. Apparently, common sense takes flight in the face of great desperation,” APC said.
”Their plan is simple: Once the parties are registered, they will then apply to change their logos to those of the original ACN, ANPP and CPC, and then hope to be on the ballot for next year’s general elections. Just before the elections, the sponsors of the phantom parties will then send out messages saying the APC has splintered into its component parties for the purpose of the election. Whatever happens, their plan is to confuse the electorate and hamper the electoral fortunes of the APC.”
The party urged INEC not to succumb to the antics of those planning to sabotage the 2015 general election, and win elections by subterfuge.
”This acronym battle is a part of the larger war against our party to prevent its registration. Nigerians will recollect that the same people, apparently, applied to register a phantom APC the moment it became clear that our merger would succeed and that INEC would register our party, having met all the requirements to consummate the merger,” it said.
”Thankfully, INEC refused to compromise its neutrality and integrity and chose to act in accordance with the law by registering our party. We urge the electoral body to do the same now, in the face of unprecedented desperation by those who believe they can only win elections by cutting corners.”
APC also called on Nigerians to be vigilant as the 2015 elections approach, saying “those who were now coming to terms with the reality that the APC was a viable alternative in the country’s political firmament would stop at nothing to seek to mar the electoral fortunes of the party.”
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