Rival APC unveils logo, emblem, merger parties kick

[TGD]

 A FRESH crisis may be brewing in the political turf as the African People's Congress (APC) Thursday unveiled its logo, acronym and emblem.

Meanwhile, leading members of the newly formed APC Thursday rose from an emergency meeting accusing the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) of setting aside huge sums of tax payers monies with the sole aim of ensuring that their political association did not see the light of the day.

The exercise brought to the fore the reality of semblance in acronym by the party and the All Progressive Congress (APC), a party being put together through a planned merger of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and All Nigeria People's Party (ANPP).

At a ceremony near the Apo Legislators' quarters in Abuja , the African Peoples Congress, which has Chief Onyinye M. Ikeagwuonu, as its protem national chairman, bemoaned what he called poverty of leadership in Nigeria since 1999.

Ikeagwuonu said that government at federal, state and local levels had failed to cleanse Nigeria of corruption regardless of the party at the helm of affairs.

"The PDP, ACN, CPC, ANPP, etc have remorselessly squandered the goodwill of Nigerians. Infrastructure suffers in the states, where their economy wound round monthly allocations and diverted council funds," he said.

Ikeagwuonu urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to urgently investigate the sources of funds used to purchase private jets by some governors.

The Ikeagwuonu-led APC condemned what he called the desperation of some people for power in the country.

The party said its major objective was "to entrench a system that is centered on the people: To reclaim our crumbling institutions and failing nation; to give Nigerians reasons to believe again."

"Today, Nigerians have a party that is committed to rebuilding Nigeria", it said.

Chairman, Merger Committee of the Action congress of Nigeria (ACN), Chief Tom Ikimi, who addressed journalists on behalf of the group in Abuja, claimed a high-ranking official of the PDP led government had been tasked to handle the campaign against the APC.

Speaking after the unveiling of the logo and manifesto of the African Peoples Congress (APC), he noted that that sort of act runs contrary to the tenets of democracy.

He further stated that their own version of the APC was the first to be made public and hence was their exclusive intellectual property.

According to him: "We have it on good authority that the establishment, gravely troubled by the emergence of a united opposition, has set up a high powered team of a very high ranking officer of government and furnished with unlimited resources from the public funds with a clear mandate to corrupt the democratic institutions and destabilise the opposition."

Ikimi who was flanked by chieftains of the APC, like former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau, Senator Annie Okonkwo and a host of others maintained that the APC name and acronym became the intellectual property of the merging opposition parties since February16,  2013 when it was made known to the public.

Justifying his assertions, he argued that all legal and constitutional processes required to formalise the decision by the CPC, ACN, the ANPP, to merge and register in the name of APC with INEC had been in progress since it was announced on the February 16, 2013.

He added: "Prior to the adoption of the name, we carried out a careful search of the existing names of all political parties and extant registration in Nigeria and find out that none had the name All progressive Congress (APC) nor the acronym APC, we chose the name and unveiled it.



The Guardian