The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday said claims that it or the national chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, is under pressure to scuttle the registration of the merging All Progressive Congress (APC) is fictitious.
Instead, the commission said, through the chief press secretary to the national chairman, Kayode Idowu that the commission will not be stampeded or blackmailed into ignoring statutory provisions in regard of any application.
INEC’s reaction was on the heels of a report in a national daily that Jega is under pressure from “high quarters” not to register the All Progressive Congress (APC).
But, Idowu, said “neither the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) nor its Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, is under pressure from any quarters in the discharge of their constitutional duties including registration of political parties.
“Both the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic (As Amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 (As Amended) prescribe specific conditions that any group seeking registration as a new political party or intending to evolve from a merger process must fulfil. INEC is a regulatory body whose duty is to make sure that applications for registration meet those conditions as applicable.”
Describing the story as fictitious, INEC said its Chairman, Jega, did not confide in anyone that he is under any kind of pressure and that he would not allow himself to be put under any kind of pressure.
“He does not need to, because he will not allow himself to be pressured in the first place.
“As stated in your story, applications to INEC for registration as political parties are a purely routine operational matter, and they are treated as such in the light of guiding statutory provisions.”
“Be assured, sir, that the present leadership of the Commission will uncompromisingly protect its integrity and the statutory rules of engagement. It will not be pressured by anyone to register, deregister or not register any party; and neither will it be stampeded or blackmailed into ignoring statutory provisions in regard of any application. The Commission, it must be restated, will do only what is right and lawful at all times”
