by crossriverwatch admin
The imperative for a shift in the date for the Local Government Council Elections in Cross River State scheduled for Saturday the 21st September 2013 by the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission, CROSIEC cannot be overemphasized with the registration of the All Progressive Congress, APC on the 31st July 2013.
The legal consequence or implication of the registration of the APC by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC is that the Action Congress; Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples Party that merged with factions of the All Progressive Grand Alliance and the Democratic Peoples Party to form the APC ceases to be legal entities vested with power to function as political parties in the country.
Section 84 sub-section 6 of the Electoral Act, 2010 ( as amended) provides that where INEC approves the resolution of political parties, the merging political parties certificates of registration issued by INEC, when they were registered stands withdrawn and shall be returned to INEC by these parties.
Accordingly on the 31st July 2013, INEC through it former Secretary, Abdullah Kaugama wrote the Chairmen of the defunct ACN; CPC and ANPP to return the certificates of registration of the ACN, CPC and ANPP to INEC with immediate effect.
As it stands now the ACN, CPC and the ANPP are extinct and indeed dead. In law the rights and privileges of the dead of a natural or artificial legal entity is that such a person dies with the natural or artificial person. A dead man cannot shout; he cannot contest election. It follows that all the candidates nominated by the ACN, CPC and ANPP to contest the Local Government Election in Cross River State on the 21st September 2013 no longer have platforms to contest.
In other words the nomination of these candidates to contest the election as Chairmen and Councillors stands invalidated. You cannot put something on nothing and expect it to stand because it shall surely crumble.
The nomination of these candidates has crumbled with the registration of the APC on the 31st July 2013. Presently the APC has no structures in the form of State Executive Committee. The State Executive Committees of the defunct ACN, CPC and ANPP have ceased to exist.
The former State Chairmen of the ACN, CPC and ANPP are no longer Chairmen. Therefore they cannot exercise any function or responsibility vested on them by the Constitutions of these defunct political parties.
They cannot convene any meeting of any organ of the APC because they do not have any authority to do that by the Constitution of the APC. I want therefore to say that anybody parading or holding out himself as Chairman or whatever of the Cross River State branch of the APC is an impostor or charlatan and should be treated as such by relevant authorities.
It follows that the meeting recently convened by some characters in Calabar purporting to act as “leaders” of the APC in Cross River State is null and void and of no effect. As it stands the candidates nominated by the Peoples Democratic Party to contest the local government council election fixed for the 21st September 2013 are the only validly nominated candidates.
So it follows that if CROSEIC does not extend the time for the election in the State all the candidates nominated by the PDP shall be returned unopposed. This is the naked truth. CROSEIC as a responsible statutory body must shift the date of the election to accommodate the registration or birth of the APC on the 31st July 2013 in the interest of justice and democracy.
Okoi Obono-Obla
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