The Nation Newspaper

Tag: APC

  • There’s no killing APC

    There’s no killing APC

    SIR: The revelation that other political parties had indicated interest to bear the acronym APC before the All Progressive Congress came to progressive Nigerians as a rude shock. It was as startling as it was disturbing, more like a deadly blow, well-rehearsed and cruelly-delivered with seeming utmost precision.

    The blow must have been meant for the jaws of the facilitators of All Progressive Congress (APC) to wit, chieftains of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) and All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) who toiled day and night to put together this awesome ‘toddler’ scheduled to enter the political firmament with a bang. But nay, the rank of forward- looking, progressive Nigerians that had fervently prayed for an intervention that would deliver the country from the crippling grip of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and that had looked forward with infectious enthusiasm and welcoming relief at the coming of All Progressive Congress had felt the blow more. Ultimately, democracy has been hit by something in the form of a ballistic missile!

    The fact of the matter is that there exists an urgent need for an alternative to the monster called Peoples Democratic Party. Not a few Nigerians are of the opinion that the PDP needs be dislodged from power before a greater damage is done to the psyche of Nigerians and the country goes deeper into the abyss of economic quagmire.

    Not only have Nigerians been totally disappointed that the government of Goodluck Jonathan has not been able to significantly address the problems of power failure, infrastructural rot, rising unemployment, excruciatingly high cost of living, closure of local industries and re-location of their foreign counterparts, issues confronting the education sector, the present serious security challenge facing the country looks set to exterminate all Nigerians. In the face of this hullabaloo, Nigerians saw the move by the facilitators of All Progressive Party to throw up another large party that could dislodge the ruling party in coming elections as a great relief and positive development.

    We have heard that a lawyer submitted African Peoples Congress’s application to INEC on behalf of somebody; we have also heared that another party All Patriotic Citizens also with the acronym of APC has submitted its application to INEC, bringing to three parties interested in bearing APC. The big question is “How on earth can one person package and sign an application on behalf of a political party? Where are INEC’s rules and regulations concerning party registration? Where were these parties on February 6 when the All Progressive Congress was formed?

    The promoters of African Peoples’ Congress and any other party struggling with All Progressives Congress and their sponsors definitely have a motive: to whittle down the enthusiasm of Nigerians, frustrate the emergence of a credible alternative and perpetuate ineffectual governance. The National Publicity Secretary of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), Osita Okechukwu spoke the minds of many Nigerians when he called on INEC to “investigate the allegation that the proposed APC is being floated by the PDP to foist a one-party system on the country”. Some officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have allegedly owned up to a conspiracy deal.

    The steely resolve of leaders of All Progressive Congress on this ‘copyright theft’ is note-worthy and heart-warming. All right-thinking Nigerians should prevail on INEC to register the All Progressive Congress with immediate effect. This great political party must not die.

     

    s• Laitan Akinwunmi

    Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos

  • ‘APC will rule Taraba’

    Former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in Taraba State, Senator Joel Ikenya, has applauded the birth of the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that it will successfully wrest power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

    The politician said that the people of Taraba State looked forward to the formal registration of the mega party buy the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Ikenja, who spoke on the phone with our correspondent, lamented that PDP had ruined the economy and puaperised Nigerians, in spite of the vast natural resources in the country.

    He said the people of Taraba State have continued to groan under the yoke of the ruling party, adding that its leaders are insensitive to the plightof the masses.

    Ikenya described the 2015 as the year of liberation from the PDP, advising Nigerians to gird their loins. He said, with the birth of the APC, rigging by the PDP will become a hard option.

    He said: “The birth of the APC is laudable. It has given up to the people of Taraba. ACN and CPC are strong in Taraba. With ANPP now in the fold, we will defeat the PDP. We look forward to the national conventions of the ACN, ANPP and CPC when the merger will be formally consumated. PDP has nothing to offer to the people of Taraba. We are tired of a party that cannot perform”.

  • APC: PDP stages counter attack

    APC: PDP stages counter attack

    The current politicking over the registration of All Progressives Congress (APC) is part of PDP and Presidency’s multiple counter attacks against the challenge of the progressives, reports Associate Editor, Sam Egburonu

    The mandate was finally issued in clear terms: “The coming together of the opposition politicians is too dangerous a development to be ignored. We, as the ruling party, must wake up to the fact that an enemy is working hard to uproot us. So, we have to fight back.”

    How the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leadership would like to handle the current challenge posed by the emergence of All Progressives Congress (APC) remained merely in the realm of speculation, even to very influential members of the party, until Thursday, March 7, 2013, when the National Chairman of the party, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur,  in a meeting he hosted in his Wuse 2 residence, spelt out the mandate alleged to have emanated from the topmost hierarchy to members of the National Working Committee.

    A source close to the party’s top echelon said the members in that important meeting were clearly informed that PDP has resolved to employ every tool available to checkmate and frustrate progressives ahead 2015 general elections. According to the source, the meeting, which reviewed the progress so far made in the party’s reconciliation efforts, emphasized the need to confront the emerging mega party, even as the members were also told of President Goodluck Jonathan’s concern over this development. They were therefore charged to be more responsive to the emerging political challenge.

    Before the open mandate

    The resolve by the presidency to effectively challenge the coming together of the progressives in the All Progressives Congress, according to our investigations, began long before Tukur allegedly briefed members of the party’s National Working Committee the upper week.

    We gathered for example that while the initial negotiations for the formation of APC was ongoing, President Goodluck Jonathan insisted that it would collapse as the leaders of the parties involved would soon disagree over crucial aspects of the merger. This position, according to our source, led the PDP Leadership and the Presidency to ignore the moves until it became almost too late.

    The APGA coup

    “But as soon as the opposition, after the meeting in Lagos, on February announced their decision to merge and become APC, it became obvious that PDP and the Presidency can no longer stay aloof. Something has to be done. The first assignment was to ensure that All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), a party that has cooperated with the PDP-led federal government is not allowed  to be misled into following the so- called mega party,” he said.

    Chief Uduma Uduma, an APGA chieftain in Abia State, told The Nation that the division in the party over membership of APC was caused by the interest of the presidency and that of President Jonathan’s associates in Anambra State. “APGA would have joined the APC as a body, but some powerful PDP agents in the east worked hard to creat the current division.”

    He alleged that Chief Anyim Pius Anyim of PDP and Governor Peter Obi of APGA led other powerful Igbos to ensure that APGA did not join the merger as a party. “It’s all in a bid to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 presidential bid,” he said, adding that this has created serious misunderstanding between Chief Victor Umeh and Governor Rochas Okorocha.”

    A source confirming this development told The Nation, how a planned meeting between Umeh and Okorocha in Abuja, shortly after the announcement of the birth of APC, was frustrated and how the two have since been working in different ways. He said “The meeting, scheduled to clarify the position of APGA on APC, was stalled because the two could not agree on what would be in the interest of Ndigbo in the emerging political scenario. This was so because right from the beginning, APGA has been manipulated by president’s men.

    Explaining why the presidency ensured that APGA did not join as a party, Uduma said, “While the negotiation for the emergence of the mega party was ongoing, presidential political researchers told the leadership of PDP that if APGA is allowed to join as a party, PDP would find it more difficult to win any state in the South-East.” According to him, Jonathan, who desperately needs South-East support as in 2011, cannot afford to allow the merger.”

    Resurrection of UPN

    Investigations show that the alleged plot to ensure that opposition is not united against PDP is not limited to the South-East where APGA is alleged to have been sacrificed. In the South-West, efforts are also being made to divide the progressives. Although the promoters of recent efforts to resurrect Unity Party of Nigeria, will not hear of it, their critics allege they may have been supported by the ruling PDP to seek re-registration to ensure that all progressives in the west do not flock to APC.

    It would be recalled that in the past week, reports that Dr Fredrick Fasheun is currently leading other Awoists now in the process of resurrecting UPN graced headlines of some national dailies. According to the report, Fasheun is the chairman of the new group.

    Politics of registration

    The intrigues however peaked recently when Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) suddenly announced that another party, with the same APC acronym has approached it for registration.

    Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, My Kayode Idowu, broke the news when he reportedly told newsmen that a party called African Peoples Congress (APC), has approached the electoral body for registration as a political party.

    He did not stop there but was also quoted as denying that All Progressives Congress has approached INEC for registration. “We don’t have any application from the All Progressives Congress with us, as the body is yet to approach us for registration,” he said. He also advised APC to consider change of name to avoid confusion.

    This development has since then led to verbal exchanges and name calling, between progressives and PDP and progressives and INEC. One of the leaders of APC and former Military Head of State,  General Muhammadu Buhari, reacting to the development said the commission is a cesspool of corruption.

    Spokesmen of the merging parties in the All Progressives Congress have challenged INEC and stated in clear terms hat they will not change the name of the mega party.

    The National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Alhaji Lai Mohammed, first explained the position of the mega party when he said the three merging parties have written the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the sudden emergence of African Peoples Congress to scuttle their merger.

    According to him, “the procedure for the merger of political parties is different from registration, making the proxy APC no threat to the merging parties.

    He said ACN, ANPP and CPC have complied with the Electoral Act to make INEC ignore the proxy APC.”

    In a statement Mohammed also said “The statement credited to Mr. Idowu is therefore reckless and provocative and clearly betrays INEC as truly having merged with the PDP to frustrate the merger of the progressives under the banner of the All Progressives’ Congress.

    The ACN said, “In this case the applicants on behalf of the African Peoples Congress, the clients of Legal World Chambers, have not submitted any of the documents stipulated by the constitution to INEC. They have only written a letter of intent and therefore INEC could not have issued them any letter of acknowledgment, let alone starting the process of verifying the documents.

    “At this point,  they cannot even be regarded as applicants. Why then did INEC through its spokesperson gleefully go to the media to proclaim that another political association has applied to be registered as African Peoples Congress using the same acronym APC?

    “Clearly,  INEC is on a mission of mischief and its paymaster is the  PDP which has been having sleepless nights since the merger arrangement was announced.’’

    The party further called attention to Section 78 (6) of the Electoral Act, which says, “An application for registration as a political party shall not be processed unless there is evidence of payment of administrative fee as may be fixed from time to time by the commission”

    ACN said it was aware that the applicants in question had not even paid any administrative fees and therefore INEC could not have commenced processing their application.

    The party said that Idowu  was   misleading Nigerians and  subverting extant regulations in order to  scuttle  the birth of the APC.

      It said what had emerged over the registration issue was that INEC, in tandem with the PDP,  was trying to stampede the merging parties into committing errors.

    He said, “No, we won’t change our name. We will stand by that name and that is what we want to be called at the commission.”

    Rotimi Fashakin, Congress for Progressive Change spokesman, said the same thing. According to him, “ We shall show to the Nigerian people nay, the whole world that INEC is indeed in collusion with the ruling party, the PDP, to extirpate any vestige of constitutional democracy from Nigeria’s political space.”

  • Press briefing on APC emblem

    Press briefing on APC emblem

  • ACN attacks PDP, INEC over APC

    ACN attacks PDP, INEC over APC

    •‘Electoral agency insincere’
    •‘INEC has only intent letter’

    The Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) yesterday took on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) amid the battle to register the All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The AC N accused INEC of “engaging in bare-faced lies and manipulation of fact by claiming that the platform African Peoples Congress has applied to the commission for registration”.

    The electoral agency confirmed the existence of a proposal for registration from the African Peoples Congress (APC).

    The ACN said yesterday in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, that it had it “on good authority that a top official of INEC has boasted that the emergence of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) will be frustrated at all costs”.

    “Also, while the PDP has been quick to say it is not bothered by the coming together of the progressive forces, it has been having sleepless nights and working round the clock to devise measures to sabotage the merger.

    “The plan to set up the phantom African Peoples Congress to create an acronym war is just a tip of the iceberg. In the days ahead, Nigerians should watch out for more devilish plans by the PDP. But we are comforted by the fact that the forces of darkness have never prevailed over the forces of light”.

    An official of the Political Party Monitoring and Lianson Office, who is believed to be eyeing INEC secretary, is said to be working for the PDP in a “desperate bid” to scuttle APC’s registration.

    Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole, also yesterday, urged INEC to register APC or have its image rubbished.

    Oshiomhole, who was elected on the platform of the AC N, one of the three major parties that merged to form the APC – the others being the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) – told reporters at the State House in Abuja that it is the right of political parties to merge.

    He said: “We have merged to form the All Progressives Congress; so, if people chose to trivialise it, it is up to them.

    “I know that INEC will register the APC because if they don’t, they will leave themselves open to accusation. Everybody knows this has been on the national discourse war at a period; it is not a new issue.

    “If people want to play these cheap games, first it shows that they are panicky and I don’t see any reason why people should be panic.

    “In a genuine democracy, it is in our interest, those in power and those out of power, to create viable alternative platform for people to make an informed choice. No party is too good to rule forever, nor is any party too bad to be out of power forever.

    “We have seen what is happening around the African continent. Nigeria must live by example in many respects. And if for some people, these are things to trivialise, it is not about me; it is not about you. A political party is not indigeneship; it is a platform of ideas. It is about Nigeria”, He said.

    The ACN said the INEC claim, as articulated by Mr. Kayode Idowu, the spokesman for INEC Chairman Prof. Attahiru Jega, is not supported by the relevant sections of the Electoral Act regulating the registration of a political party.

    It said no party today with the acronym APC has applied to INEC to be registered, adding that even “the phantom African Peoples Congress – which is being sponsored by the PDP to lay claim to the acronym – has only written a letter of intent, which has not even been discussed by INEC, let alone the commission taking any decision on it.

    ‘’The statement credited to Mr. Idowu is therefore reckless and provocative and clearly betrays INEC as truly having merged with the PDP to frustrate the merger of the progressives under the banner of the All Progressives Congress (APC). One wonders who the spokesman is speaking for and what interest he represents. He should therefore be called to order before he sets the country ablaze,’’ the ACN said.

    The party said in order to debunk INEC’s claim that the phantom African Peoples Congress has applied for registration, it is calling the attention of all the good people of Nigeria to the sections of the Electoral Act that are relevant to party registration:

    – Part V Political Parties of the Electoral Act, Section 78 (1) says: “A political association that complies with the provision of the Constitution and this Act for the purposes of registration shall be registered as a political party, provided that such application shall be duly submitted to the Commission not later than 6 months before a general election.”

    – Section 78 (2) which says: “The Commission shall on receipt of the documents in fulfilment of the conditions stipulated by the Constitution immediately issue the applicant with a letter of acknowledgement stating that all necessary documents have been submitted to the Commission”

    The ACN said: ‘’In this case, the applicants on behalf of the phantom African Peoples Congress, the clients of Legal World Chambers, have not submitted any of the documents stipulated by the Constitution to the Commission. They have only written a letter of intent and therefore INEC could not have issued them any letter of acknowledgment, let alone starting the process of verifying the documents

    ‘’At this point, they cannot even be regarded as applicants. Why then did INEC through its spokesperson gleefully go to the media to proclaim that another political association has applied to be registered as African Peoples Congress using the same acronym APC?.

    “Clearly INEC is on a mission of mischief and its paymaster is PDP which has been having sleepless nights since the merger arrangement was announced.’’

    The party also called attention to Section 78 (6) of the Electoral Act, which says: “An application for registration as a political party shall not be processed unless there is evidence of payment of administrative fee as may be fixed from time to time by the Commission”

    The ACN said it is aware that the applicants in question have not even paid any administrative fees and therefore INEC could not have commenced processing their application, because there is no application before INEC as they have only written a letter of intent.”

    To the ACN, the INEC spokesperson who announced that another political association has applied to be registered as APC is misleading Nigerians.

    “He should immediately be called to order before he sets the country ablaze,’’ the party said.

    It said what has emerged over the registration issue is that INEC is in cahoots with the PDP to stampede the merging parties to commit errors and also intimidate them to drop the acronym APC, adding however: ‘’This has failed because as of today in accordance with the provisions of S. 78 (2) and S. 78 (6) of the Electoral Act as explained above, there is no applicant on record for the acronym APC, contrary to the deceit being spread by the INEC spokesman.

    The ACN also alerted Nigerians to the fact that INEC has had a constructive knowledge of the merger plan and the existence of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for a long time, going by statements credited to the INEC spokesman.

    On February 17th 2013, Mr. Idowu was quoted to have said, in a news story in The Punch of that date, that the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) remained a political association, even though it is yet to be recognised by the commission.

    “By law, we do not expect APC to come to INEC. The political parties that are fusing into another party will individually and respectively come back to INEC, notifying us that they are fusing into a party with a new identity,’’ the ACN quoted Mr. Idowu to have said told the newspaper.

    ‘’The same Idowu also told TVC news on February 8 that INEC was expecting the leadership of the All Progressives’ Congress to apply for formal documentation. With these statements, it is clear that INEC has always had a constructive knowledge of the All Progressives’ Congress (APC) since the merger plan started, and that the emerging party did not have to do anything until all the component parties have held their conventions and ratified the constitution, manifesto and logo of the APC.

    ‘’We are therefore using this medium to assure the millions of our supporters within and outside Nigeria that there is no cause for alarm. The merger process is on course. The All Progressives’ Congress that is the legitimate people’s APC will berth safely and deliver Nigerians from the oppressive yoke of the PDP.

    ‘’We also wish to seize this opportunity to thank the thousands of concerned Nigerians who through text messages and emails have overwhelmed us with their advice and words of encouragement in the last two days.

    Your support have been invaluable to us and we shall not let you down,’’ the party said.

    The Lagos chapter of the ACN said Jega should quit having displayed partisanship.

    In a statement by its Publicity Secretary Joe Igbokwe, it said: “Lagos ACN therefore calls on Jega and his INEC leadership to resign or get sacked for falling so short of the impartial expectation of an INEC leadership. We urge Nigerians to step up the pressure to free INEC rotten leadership of Jega and the present INEC leadership. We must step up our demand that an independent and competent, non-partisan INEC leadership be empaneled by the NJC for the purpose of organising elections in Nigeria.

    “We must express our disapproval of an INEC leadership made up of card-carrying members of PDP, who are sworn to the protection and promotion of the PDP interests as the Jega leadership is presently committed to. We charge the members, supporters and sympathisers of Nigeria to be on their guards as the PDP/INEC plots fully unfold and be prepared to engage in mass actions necessary to secure an INEC that is not beholden to the guiles and antics of the PDP in its quest for limitless but irresponsible power.”

    The statement added: “We are shocked that the Jega-led INEC should indulge in such brazen, dirty and inordinate tricks as stealing in a fraudulent registration for a shadowy political party for the purpose of denying the APC its just registration.

    “We are peeved that such callous act is being perpetrated by the INEC leadership in contrivance with the PDP for the sole purpose of furthering the selfish, narrow and pristine interests of the PDP. This has sent an early warning signals that the Jega INEC is bent on once again, manipulating the coming election in favour of the PDP without regard to the feelings of the generality of long-suffering Nigerians.”

     

  • ‘APC will rule Taraba’

    ‘APC will rule Taraba’

    Former Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) governorship candidate in Taraba State, Senator Joel Ikenya, has applauded the birth of the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that it will successfully wrest power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015.

    The politician said that the people of Taraba State looked forward to the formal registration of the mega party buy the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC).

    Ikenja, who spoke on the phone with our correspondent, lamented that PDP had ruined the economy and puaperised Nigerians, in spite of the vast natural resources in the country.

    He said the people of Taraba State have continued to groan under the yoke of the ruling party, adding that its leaders are insensitive to the plightof the masses.

    Ikenya described the 2015 as the year of liberation from the PDP, advising Nigerians to gird their loins. He said, with the birth of the APC, rigging by the PDP will become a hard option.

    He said: “The birth of the APC is laudable. It has given up to the people of Taraba. ACN and CPC are strong in Taraba. With ANPP now in the fold, we will defeat the PDP. We look forward to the national conventions of the ACN, ANPP and CPC when the merger will be formally consumated. PDP has nothing to offer to the people of Taraba. We are tired of a party that cannot perform”.

     

  • APC is national pain relief, says senator

    APC is national pain relief, says senator

    THE Federal Government was at the weekend blamed for the “endemic scourge of youth unemployment”.

    Senator Annie Okonkwo, who heaped the blame on the federal authority, lamented that those entrusted with the leadership of the country lack the wherewithal to develop the nation.

    According to the senator, the pathetic politics of hate has made Anambra adults and youths the easiest recruits for crimes and criminality hitherto unheard of in the history of the state.

    Okonkwo, a national caucus member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and president of the C21 political group, said nothing short of a radical emergency, engineered and spearheaded by Nigerians with a firm commitment to a new order can arrest the decay.

    According to a statement by his media manager, Mr. Collins Steve Ugwu, the senator was addressing a massive youth summit at Emmaus House, in Awka, at the weekend.

    The event was organised by the youths to reawaken and recover their faith in democratic participation.

    Okonkwo lamented what he called ‘a progressive and fatal decline in the primacy given to the youths of Anambra State and Nigeria by operators of government under the current political dispensation.

    The statement reads: “It is a stark irony that our government which whimsically rue over spiraling criminality in our blessed land, is aggressively indifferent to a clear cut idle youth development and containment policy, be it in sports, agriculture, vocational institutes, technical colleges, trades and crafts, or even basic employment as clerks, messengers, drivers, cleaners with modest dignity.

    “This brazen irony becomes awfully sinful when the same people at no qualms to their conscience and constitutional responsibilities, gladly dips into the same army of alienated youths to recruit their thugs and liberally fill the vacuum for their praise singers.”

    Visibly overwhelmed by the serial but articulate lamentations of the assembly and resource persons, Okonkwo, however, reassured them that “at the heart of this inglorious facade of governance, lies the cardinal thrust of All Progressive Congress rescue mission in Nigeria beginning with Anambra soon in 2014, and decisively Nigeria in 2015, because the unrepentant apostles of the same order, justifiably deserves to be swept away by the surging currents of change, substance, and character in governance.”

    A communique adopted at the end of the summit attended by representatives from all the Southeast states, called for:

    · Increased youth participation at all levels of democratic structures and governance;

    ·Transparent internal democracy in all the parties; and

    ·Immediate end to the youth denial and appointment of caretaker committee that has become the defining legacy of the present government in Anambra State.

  • ‘APC will tackle Nigeria’s problem’

    The Special Adviser to Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola on Environment, Hon.Bola Ilori, has expressed optimism that the All Progressive Congress (APC) will rescue the country from its present precarious situation.

    Ilori, who is a chieftain of the Action Congress of Nigeria(ACN), spoke to reporters at the High Court premises,Akure,the Ondo State capital when on a solidarity visit to the party supporters at the tribunal.

    He said the merging of the parties underscores the collective resolve aimed at rescuing the people of the country from the ‘’ruderless Peoples Democratic Party government”.

    Ilori emphasised that the merger is not to advance the political interests of the two leaders; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), adding that it is in the national interest.

    The former Chairman of the Alimoso Local Government Area of Lagos State predicted success for the APC at the general elections.

    Ilori said the political leaders have overcome the problems that undermined the previous alliances, urging Nigerians to brace up for change at the centre.

    He described the PDP as a divided house assailed by a protracted civil war, adding that a house divided against itself will fall.

    Ilori stressed: “PDP has over the years used billions of dollars to produce darkness and poor quality of education. There is mass unemployment, particularly among the youths. The opposition is concerned. APC will soon flow down to the state level when all the necessary things are sorted out at the national level. Nigerians will reject PDP in 2015 and embrace the APC because they are tired of the inept PDP administration”.

    On the electoral litigation involving the ACN and Labour Party (LP) in Ondo State, Ilori said that, with the unprecedented evidence before the panel about all the illegalities that characterised the last governorship election, the case would be addressed in favour of Akeredolu.

    The politician urged the party supporters to remain steadfast and pray to God for the panel to uphold truth and justice.

  • ACN, ANPP, CPC youths back APC to dislodge PDP

    ACN, ANPP, CPC youths back APC to dislodge PDP

    Youth leaders of merging political parties yesterday called on youths and progressives all over the country and in Diaspora to support and join the All Progressives Congress (APC) to save Nigeria from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    The youths said the PDP government is leading the country to a wrong destination.

    At a joint news conference in Abuja, youth leaders of the merging political parties, including the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) said: “The journey to the Promised Land under a government of PDP that is lacking focus and vision is proving to be an impossible task.”

    ACN National Youth Leader, Comrade Ebikibina Miriki, who briefed reporters on the development, lamented that the Nigerian dream has become a mirage every passing moment.

    The youths called on “all youth and progressives all over the country and in Diaspora to support and join the All Progressives Congress (APC) not only to challenge the PDP but also to save this sinking ship called Nigeria from drowning, where elections are a sham as results are already known before hand.”

     

  • Aregbesola: APC will take over in 2015

    Aregbesola: APC will take over in 2015

    Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday predicted that the newly- proposed All Progressive Congress (APC) will take over the reins of government at the federal level in the next general election.

    He spoke in Ede yesterday during the 10th edition of the monthly physical fitness exercise of the state government tagged ‘Walk to Live’.

    The governor charged Osun residents and indigenes to welcome the party that will ensure peace and development in Nigeria.

    He said: “This new party called APC is the party that will guarantee peace and development in this country as we have been witnessing in Osun.

    “It is clear that there is peace in Osun otherwise it would be difficult to successfully carry out this physical fitness exercise without any chaos.”

    Aregbesola added: “Since we all want this kind of peace to extend to other parts of the country, let us all welcome the new political party that will effect change in this country.

    “We are also happy that we have successfully sent away the enemies of progress in this state but we should not allow them to use their antics to destroy the peace we have been enjoying, either through religion, politics or some of the developmental programmes we have been carrying out.”

    The governor, who noted that all the programmes and policies of his administration are meant to serve the interest of the people, advised the people to discard the confusion some people, he described as hypocrites planned to create on the school uniforms being given to students.

    Explaining the significance of physical fitness exercise, Aregbesola emphasised it helps people to remain healthy.

    The Secretary-General, Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), Mr. Olatunde Popoola, charged other states of the federation to emulate the initiative for physical fitness exercise and for sport development.