Court rules on Tuesday over APC vs APC Acronym war

The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja will on Tuesday rule in an application filed by the African Peoples Congress seeking to nullify the registration of the All Progressives Congress, APC.

The All Progressives Congress, registered last July by the Independent National Election Commission, is a merger of some opposition parties, namely Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, and a section of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA.

However, the African Peoples Congress, which had sought but was denied INEC’s registration as a political party, challenged the registration in court claiming that the acronym, APC, was originally its own.

It had earlier filed a suit challenging the refusal by INEC to register it as a party.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole had during the last sitting of the court adjourned hearing on the battle for the acronym to May 27.

In its motion paper, the rival unregistered association had sought the following:

-An order of the court in the exercise of its disciplinary jurisdiction annulling, setting aside and voiding the action of INEC in registering All Progressives Congress with acronym APC notwithstanding the pendency of this present suit.

-An order of the court in the exercise of its disciplinary jurisdiction setting aside and voiding any steps taken by INEC to facilitate the registration of the said All Progressives Congress APC after becoming aware of the pendency of the suit in contravention to the doctrine of Lis Pendens.

A statement by the African Peoples Congress, Monday, said the impending legal battle would be the second to the last victory it required to fully own the acronym.

“We wish to inform you also that at the last sitting, the court delivered three favorable rulings striking out the three main useless motions filled by paid agents of our rival APC to stall the conclusion of the legal hearing on the APC registration battle. The ruling of the court in our last sitting removed the last three obstacles holding the conclusion of the suit,” the association’s National Legal Adviser, Kingsley Nnadi said.

“By tomorrow, if all go as expected, the court will after considering the injunctive motion to nullify the purported registration of APC by INEC, go ahead and give us date for the adoption of our written addresses for the main suit after which we hope to reclaim our APC and start our 2015 campaign activities.”

The association urged the media to stand by it in its quest for victory on the issue.

Court rules on Tuesday over APC vs APC Acronym war