The battle for the APC acronym took a new dimension today with one of the Rival APC(African Peoples Congress) flooding Abuja streets with their pro APC acronym posters. The posters which is coming few hours after another rival APC(ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS OF NIGERIA) announced its intention to commence legal action next week Monday to stop INEC from considering the registration request submitted by the merger parties(ALL PROGRESSIVE CONGRESS) has all signaled that the road to the registration of the merger parties is already getting Narrow.
The posters was pasted around all the major streets and flyovers in Abuja (Asokoro, Ahmadu bello way, Maitama and Wuse districts)
The messages carried by the posters was more like a warning and shape of things to come ( APC- AFRICAN PEOPLES CONGRESS- NO PROPAGANDA CAN STOP APC. 2015 APC DEY KAMPE.THE PLOT TO STAMPEDE THE JUDICIARY AND INEC HAS FAILED,NIGERIANS BEWARE APC ACRONYM BELONGS TO AFRICAN PEOPLES CONGRESS UNLESS THE COURT RULES OTHERWISE: DONT JOIN A SINKING SHIP) ETC
The timing of the posters and its message seems to be aimed at stopping the registration of the merger parties which is currently under review by INEC.
The merger application which is currently under review by the legal department of INEC has two major hurdles to cross,the status of the application in view of the non availability of the list and addresses of National Officers of the merging parties which is a constitutional requirement of section 222 of the constitution upon which INEC earlier based their denial of registration of the African Peoples congress application. The merger parties are still facing hard times over the selection of their National Officers. Another major hurdle is the pending legal case instituted by the African Peoples Congress which INEC is still in court battling with the group, going by precedent and legal principle ,the commission is duty bound to wait until the court rules before another group can make use of the acronym.
The days ahead will be intriguing as Nigerians are patiently waiting to see how all these political dramas playing out will end
EMEKA NKWOCHA
HORN