2019: Politicians Launch New Party, Submit Application To INEC

Politicians across the six geopolitical zones took a leap on Monday night in Abuja, by holding the inaugural meeting of a new political party known as the Action Democratic Party (ADP), saying that the association had applied for registration with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

It is uncertain if this new party has any relationship with the alliance being contemplated by the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, which currently controls 11 states in the country, and some prominent members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to form a new mega party, however, the PDP had made it clear recently that it has no intention of changing its name, even with an alliance.

The meeting of the proposed ADP, which was chaired by a prominent politician from the North-central zone, Mr. Yagbagi Sani, briefed members of the progress made so far in the registration of the party and what needed to be done to complete the registration process.

During the meeting held at the interim secretariat of the planned party in Asokoro, Abuja, which was graced by members – many of them, former members of the PDP, APC and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) – from all the geo-political zones of the country, the new party also adopted the political association’s name, ADP, and a logo depicting a hand holding a book.

While welcoming members to the maiden meeting, Sani said that some prominent politicians (many of them do not want their names to be mentioned for now) decided to embark on the current journey to save the country from the impending political anarchy.

He informed his audience: “Ladies and gentlemen, I have no doubt in my mind that we are all politically conscious citizens—desirous of a better country for ourselves and our people; hence we wasted no time in answering the call to be part of a movement that is meant to achieve only that.

“The political space in Nigeria at the moment can best be described as chaotic; this is for want of a better adjective. Wherever one looks, there is an overwhelming sense of despondency among the people.

“All over the news and opinion columns, citizens of Nigeria are yearning for a new political direction and hope in the present political manifestations.

“The reasons are not too far-fetched; take a look at any of the prominent political parties and you would find that they are already in disarray or on the brink of breakups.
“They are all neck deep in one form of crisis or the other. It is either they are battling a leadership crisis, a credibility crisis, or both. This is in addition to pervasive issues of mutual distrust and loyalty.”

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PDP Faction, Aggrieved APC Members To Form New Party Against 2019 Election

Amidst the unresolved intra-party crisis within its fold, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may have decided to chart a new course by setting in motion a process that would eventually lead to the formation of a new political alliance ahead of the 2019 general election.
In this regard, the main opposition party under the leadership of the National Caretaker Committee chairman, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, will today inaugurate a committee known as the Strategy Review and Inter-Party Affairs Committee under the chairmanship of Professor Jerry Gana.
The new committee, which is made up of 85 prominent leaders of the PDP, also has the former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr. Austin Opara, as its secretary.
PDP’s move is a reflection of the new thinking among its key leaders who having been frustrated at resolving the differences with the factional national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, and are now looking for an alternative platform.
According to sources at the secretariat of the Makarfi-led PDP in Abuja, the inauguration of the committee will formally open up the process of dialogue and consultations with other political parties, including former members of the PDP who left to join the All Progressives Congress (APC), with a view to building a formidable platform.
Although the terms of reference for the committee were not published along with the membership of the committee in the newspaper advertisement published last week, it was gathered that the list of prominent politicians that make up the committee was indicative that the party was looking towards a re-alignment ahead of the 2019 elections.
Some of the members of the committee include Senators Adolphus Wabara, Ibrahim Mantu, Sam Egwu, Ibrahim Kazaure, Stella Omu, Iyiola Omisore, Adamu Gumba, Emmanuel Bwacha, Saidu Kumo, Ayo Adeseun, Tunde Ogbeha, Ibrahim Ida and Hon. Emeka Ihedioha.
Others are former Governors Attahiru Bafarawa, Peter Obi, Liyel Imoke, Gbenga Daniel, Abdulkadir Kure, Sule Lamido, Idris Wada, Boni Haruna, Babangida Aliyu, Jonah David Jang and Mukhtar Yero.
Others include Mukhtar Shagari, Salimot Makanjuola Badru, Chief Tom Ikimi, Chief Onyema Ugochukwu and Chief Dubem Onyia.
The move to form a new political alliance is coming just as more facts have emerged on why the recent peace initiative in PDP collapsed.
It was gathered from reliable sources in the factions of the party led by Senators Makarfi and Sheriff that both sides disagreed on the composition of the reconciliation committee and who will chair it.
It was learnt that soon after Makarfi and Sheriff accepted to forge peace and settle their differences, the feuding sides accepted that one of the founding fathers of the party and the former National Security Adviser, Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed Gusau, should be the one to mediate on the crisis.
Both Sheriff and Makarfi attended several peace meetings in the residence of Gusau where ideas were canvassed on how to go about setting up the reconciliation committee.
The party leaders had initially settled for 12 nominees on both sides to the committee, but had to review it to 15 at the request of Makarfi.
A source said Makarfi later changed his mind and suggested that the committee be slashed to just three representatives each from both sides of the divide, which Sheriff accepted.
According to another source from the Sheriff camp, the disagreement arose when the issue of who would chair the reconciliation committee was to be decided.
He noted that while Sheriff proposed that he and Makarfi should both step down to allow members of the reconciliation committee to choose a chairman from among themselves to pilot the affairs of the party till the next convention, Makarfi was reluctant to give up his position and objected to the idea.
“It was at this stage that Sheriff then proposed that the reconciliation committee should be headed by former President Goodluck Jonathan, but Makarfi also rejected the idea, leading to a stalemate,” the source revealed.
The source, who claimed to have monitored the proceedings closely, spoke of how Makarfi kept most of the stakeholders of the party on his side in the dark about the true picture of things regarding his talks with Sheriff.
For instance, the source alleged that Makarfi failed to relay to the leaders of the National Assembly Caucus of the party the offers made by Sheriff to step down if Makarfi was ready to do likewise.
According to the source, it got to a point where the former Deputy Senate President Ibrahim Mantu arrived from his South African trip and enquired to know the progress on the peace talks, only to discover from Gusau that Sheriff had indeed been forthcoming with offers on how to end the lingering dispute in the party.
However on his part, Makarfi blamed Sheriff for reneging on the agreements they reached.
He had told journalists in an interview in Kaduna at the weekend that the key area where they had a problem was the issue of the terms of reference for the reconciliation committee.
He said: “What we agreed was that the other side (Sheriff’s faction) will join the caretaker committee (Makarfi’s committee). And that was the basic agreement that was reached.
“We should set up an equal number of party men and women that would sit down and look at the modality for integrating the two sides into a new caretaker committee and also draw the modality for the withdrawal of all court cases or consensual settlement of the cases.
“We agreed that in withdrawing all cases, let it be something that we all consent to so as to prevent future litigation.
“Later, I was the one that sent a message that we needed to expand it to 15 because instead of two governors we wanted to include three governors in order to carry everybody along.
“So, that was how we hit the figure 15 on each side. And the issue now became who will chair that committee and the terms of reference. On who to chair the committee, there were names that were mentioned.
“In my opinion, I thought of the person who was able to convene us without dispute should be able to chair the committee. In suggesting any other name you don’t know how it would be received by other people.
“On the choice of former President Goodluck Jonathan to chair the reconciliation committee, Makarfi said the advice against it was that the former president should not be dragged into the crisis at the moment but that he can continue to play an advisory role.”

Aggrieved PDP, APGA Members Form New Party

The disagreement within the Peoples Democratic Party came to a head Tuesday as some members of the party teamed up with others in the All Progressive Grand Alliance, APGA, and other parties to form a new party. The group, which held its maiden meeting in Abuja Tuesday, unanimously adopted Chief Perry Opara as the protem chairman of the proposed party which is named Peoples Mega Party, PMP. Chief Opara was an aide to

Chief Opara was an aide to former political adviser to Goodluck Jonathan, Alhaji Ahmed Gulak, who recently filed a suit against the PDP and the then acting national chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, and secured a judgement ordering Secondus to vacate office as acting chairman on ground that his acting role had elapsed. Addressing the meeting, Chief Opara said the leadership crisis within the PDP which had impacted negatively on its glory and future, had necessitated the need for the Peoples Mega Party, PMP. He explained: “The major people who are in the party are former members of the PDP who are disenchanted by the high level of corruption, high level of impunity and high-handedness in the PDP. ”They have decided to form something very new and they are of the opinion that they should hand over the party to younger elements who are less corrupt and who can fight for the interest of the people. “It does not mean that it is only people from the PDP, we have APGA chairmen from many states of Nigeria identifying with the new party, people from Labour Party, LP, and the Accord Party, AP.

”There are also disenchanted people from the APC that feel that they want a new place and that is what it is. Today marks the birth of this new party.” The proposed party adopted the picture of a human being as its logo, while its slogan is: “Forward Nigeria.”

Credit: Vanguard

PDP Governors Set To Form New Party

There are strong indications that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may break- up. Governors elected under the party’s platform are planning to form a new political party away from the crisis-ridden PDP.

The governors are insisting that the National Chairman of the party, Adamu Mu’azu should step-down from office. They have resolved to form a new political platform if Mu’Azu fails to resign.

Mu’azu has, however, insisted that he would not resign until the end of his tenure in 2016.

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Postpone Elections or Include Us on New Ballot Papers, New Party Tells INEC

Young Democratic Party,? a new party which a court compelled the Independent National Electoral Commission to recognise, has said the electoral body should either reprint the ballot papers to include it for the coming general elections or postpone the polls.

The stance of the party may have boosted ongoing efforts to scuttle the forthcoming elections. A Federal High Court in Abuja, Wednesday, ordered INEC to recognise YDP and accommodate it in the forthcoming elections that are about four weeks away.

Addressing journalists in Abuja on Thursday, the party’s Publicity Secretary, Ugo Nwofor, said INEC “has just two options,” adding that the party was ready for the elections. The conditions, according to Mr. Nwofor, include reprinting the ballot papers to accommodate the party and its candidates.? But if INEC does not have “appropriation for logistics?” for reprinting the ballot papers, Mr. Nwofor issued the second option which was that, “lNEC should postpone the elections to accommodate our party.”

Read More: Premium Times

Court Orders INEC to Register New Party

The rescheduled general election on Wednesday suffered another setback following the judgment of the Federal High Court in Abuja, which ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accord full recognition to the Young Democratic Party.

The judgement is coming barely three weeks to the commencement of the elections. Justice Ahmed Mohammed made the order in his judgment on the suit filed by the party, challenging its denial of registration by INEC.

The judge held that YDP was deemed registered when INEC failed to inform the then political association? of its decision not to register it as a political party within 30 days of receiving its application, as required under Section 78 (4) of the Electoral Act, 2010?.

The judgement is definitely going to affecte INEC’s preparations for the elections as the commission would now have to accomodate the new party in its programmes.

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