APC Cannot Be Registered Without CPC’s “Missing Certificate”

If one listens to the National Publicity Secretary of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Lai Mohammed, as he regale Nigerians with how many Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors that are waiting in the wings to dump PDP and move over to the fold of the yet to be registered All Progressives Congress (APC), one would be pardoned to think that the registration of APC is a fait accompli. Nothing could be further from the truth. More so as the possessor of the “missing certificate” of registration of the Congress for Progressives Change (CPC), has threatened that he would not be blackmailed to release the certificate. This certificate is so critical to the CPC being a part of APC and to the survival of the merger dream, because unlike the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) which was easily shoved aside because it was not really an equal partner in the APC merger, the CPC despite bringing only one state at the table, is indeed so central to the success of the merger. If CPC cannot produce its certificate of registration, APC may be dead on arrival not minding the success or otherwise of the court case instituted by another group claiming the acronym APC. To those who do not understand the importance of the missing certificate to the whole APC registration saga, let me remind them that it is a requirement in the Electoral Act, 2010, that merging parties must return their old certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), if it must collapse into a new party.

Section 84 (5) of the Act says, “Where the request for the proposed merger is approved, the Commission shall withdraw and cancel the certificates of registration of all the political parties opting for the merger and substitute a single certificate of registration in the name of the party resulting from the merger.”

The certificate saga has been rocking the CPC since 2010 when a new National Working Committee, NWC, emerged at a national convention held that year in Abuja.

The founding National Chairman of CPC, Rufai Hanga, who was replaced with the incumbent chairman, Tony Momoh, held on to the certificate in protest after he was blocked from re-contesting for the position.

Mr. Hanga, a former senator and some members of the former NWC challenged their removal from office in the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. The case is still ongoing.

Given the importance of the “missing certificate”, one would have thought that the CPC would be reaching out to Hanga to find amicable resolution to the problem as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s intervention through a meeting with Hanga appears to have failed to achieve the required result. The recourse to dialogue seems unacceptable to a good number of people in the CPC. Some people were still talking tough and imagined that they can arm twist Hanga. A typical mindset of some CPC members is to go to police to declare the certificate missing. But how can you go to court to swear an affidavit that a property you know who is holding it is missing and thereafter  hope to use that to rigmarole yourself out of a quagmire?

A member representing CPC in the merger committee, Osita Okechukwu, reportedly dismissed Mr. Hanga tactic, saying the issue will not stop APC from requesting registration or hamper its chances of being registered.

Mr. Okechukwu added that the party had since approached the police and the court to swear an affidavit that its certificate was missing, adding that Mr. Hanga risks being arrested.

 “That is not an issue,” Mr Okechukwu told PREMIUM TIMES. “How can a managing director claim that he is the owner of a company when the chairman is there?”

He added, “We’ve declared an affidavit in court that our certificate is missing. There are two things: In the example I have given, if the MD goes away with the certificate of incorporation, he is either arrested by the police or the CAC produces certified copy of the certificate of incorporation and in our own case, it is INEC”. If INEC registers APC without CPC tendering its certificate of registration, will it not be a violation of the Electoral Act?

From all indications the top apparatchiks of the CPC do not want Hanga to be their chairman as he is from the same zone with the CPC leader and potential presidential candidate of the APC, General Muhammadu Buhari. Buhari is from Katsina State, while Hanga is from Kano. Senator Hanga, meanwhile, recently declared in a letter to INEC, that he was in possession of the CPC’s original certificate of registration, against the party’s position that the certificate was missing, and alleged that he was being bullied over the matter, but that the certificate, which he said was in his possession, would never be released under threat.

He said that he supported the merger moves and was ready to do anything to make it work, but that “I refuse to be pushed aside just like that and be stampeded. Nobody can coerce me into submission.” I think the most honourable thing for Lai Mohammed and other APC leaders should do is to put their house in order first before advertising the success of its encroachment, if any, on the PDP governors’ territory. As it is APC may not be registered without the acquiescence of Hanga, the possessor of the CPC “almighty” registration certificate. If Hanga did not yield to pressure, I expect the APC media machine to start a campaign of calumny against INEC for not registering the party. It is going to be messy.