As multiple political groups bearing the acronym, APC, emerge, allegations and counter allegations by the various APCs’ are shoved around with the most recent coming from the African Peoples Congress, APC.
The African Peoples Congress, first to apply to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for registration, has accused the All Progressives Congress, of plotting to assassinate some of its officials.
The party in a statement Friday by its acting National Secretary, Sa’I’d Balogun, said it has “uncovered plots by some faceless persons believed to be inspired by desperate elements in the so-called merger group to attack and possibly eliminate key officers of the African People’s Congress, APC.
The African Peoples Congress said the knowledge of the planned attack came to light barely twenty four hours after it unveiled its National Headquarters, logo, manifesto and constitution.
In the statement, the party said the day its paraphernalia were unveiled; two men accosted some administrative staff who were getting ready to close at about 10.15 p.m.
“Two men came round the backside of the office claiming they wanted to register as members of the party, a feature that has become common place in the secretariat, but Iloabanafo advised them to come back the next day or any other week day.
“The hoodlums insisted they preferred to be registered immediately, and while the party officer was trying to explain things to them, they pulled out guns and demanded the whereabouts of the Acting Chairman who had left the Secretariat earlier,” the party said in the statement.
The party said when the gunmen did not find the Acting Chairman, they left but not without revealing that they had been sent by highly placed person.
“The gunmen left, muttering words that were barely audible but suggested that there were other highly placed persons complicit in the plot but preferred to be kept out of the plot,” it stated.
The African Peoples Congress said that no amount of intimidation or harassment can deter it from pursuing its goals and aspirations in the interest of the good people of Nigeria.
“We are too busy to engage in hollow exchanges as initiated yesterday by Chief Tom Ikimi, who fruitlessly shopped for excuses, claims and assertions to justify their failures and political inadequacies.
“As the “assemblage of windpipes” which the merger group represents, Ikimi rushed off to the press on learning of the unveiling of the APC and our firmness of purpose; to ventilate a most pedestrian assertion’ such that can only be expected of school-age children or demented teenagers,” the party said in its statement.
The All Progressives Congress, the first of all the similar abbreviations the nation heard about in terms of emerging political parties, has constantly accused the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of masterminding the establishment of the African Peoples Congress; an accusation the latter and the PDP have sturdily denied. Both parties say the All Progressives Congress was careless in its dealings and is incapable of ruling Nigerians.
In the African Peoples Congress recent statement, the party said “we wish to alert Nigerians of their grand plot of smuggling a back-dated application for registration into the INEC, an action that could plunge Nigerian democracy into the woods of lawlessness. For APC, that is most unacceptable.
“It is indeed pathetic that same people that claim to pursue the deepening of democracy cannot abide by the letters of the constitution and due process.”
Meanwhile, the African Peoples Congress says it will hold a meeting of National Officers in anticipation of the issuance of certificate of registration to it by INEC.
The meeting, the party said, will be “to commence mobilization and sensitization of Nigerians preparatory to the launching of our about to be registered party”.
Culled from Premium Times