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INEC dismisses plans to de-register AD
By Kodilinye Obiagwu and John Abba-Ogbodo, (Abuja)
THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has no plans to de-register the Alliance for Democracy (AD), despite the statement by a former member of the party in Abuja at the weekend. A member of the House of Representatives, Olufemi Onimole, might be unaware that members of the National Executive Committee (NEC) who were elected at the September 29 national convention of the AD in Lagos would be inaugurated today in Abuja.
Onimole said INEC may soon withdraw AD's certificate of registration. Onimole's statement came amidst plans by the AD to recall him and another member of the party, Dotun Animashaun (Kosofe federal constituency) who decamped to the PDP.
Sources in the commission yesterday told The Guardian that there was no reason for the commission to decertify the AD after it held a national convention in Lagos on September 29. The commission had observers in the convention in which Akande was elected chairman.
According to the National Publicity Secretary of the AD, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, the inauguration ceremony of the NEC will take place at the Bumbuma Wuse Zone 1, Abuja National Secretariat of the AD.
At an interactive session with journalists during which he made the statement, Onimole also explained why he left the AD for the People's Democratic Party (PDP).
The lawmaker said that due to the seeming intractable division in the party, INEC had "warned them to resolve the crisis soon or have their certificate of registration withdrawn. I am aware that INEC has warned them to resolve the problem quickly or the party's certificate of registration will be withdrawn."
Explaining why he left the AD, Onimole, who represents Ifako/Ijaiye federal constituency in the House of Representatives, said he had been uncomfortable with events in the party since 1999. The climax of the problem he said, was the factions, which pitched Akande and Chief Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa as factional leaders.
Onimole said that despite his advise to other AD members in House to remain neutral so that they could wade into crisis and find a solution, an instruction came from Lagos State asking them to join the Akande's faction.
He said: "At a meeting of AD caucus of the House of Representatives, I suggested that a team be raised from amongst us to mediate, but those who were nominated belonged to the Akande's faction." He said that the inability to halt the drift was a source of worry and after due consultations with members of his constituency, he was advised to leave for the PDP."
He expressed his grouse with AD government in Lagos saying that despite the fact that his constituency is entirely AD, the only road leading to the place was completely neglected.
Onimole said that despite personal appeals and a letter from the people, the government had failed to listen.
Last week, the AD said it would recall Onimole and Animashaun who recently joined the PDP.
A statement by the AD in Lagos described Animashaun as a contractor who was attracted to the PDP for pecuniary inducements. "This is the way he has made his money over the years, by selling himself to the highest bidder so it was easy for him to be tricked as soon as he saw the colour of money.
The statement said Onimole betrayed the Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu who "intervened on his behalf to make him the candidate for his constituency."
The party noted that but for Tinubu, Onimole would not have been re-elected. Onimole "was a neophyte in politics. It is very funny that he did not think that the party had lost focus or that the party was a one-man show when he made false promises to gain sympathy at the time of his election," the statement said.
Mr. Steve Osemeke of the Public Affairs Department of INEC said he does not think that, "INEC will decertify the AD because the commission observed the convention in Lagos. The commission was not aware of any court injunction restraining the party members from holding the convention and on that basis, it sent observers. He also noted that "the commission sent two commissioners to observe the convention especially as the commission had given the party an October deadline to put its house in order."
Osemeke, who admitted to The Guardian that the matter was a sensitive one, said the commission has no reason to doubt the outcome of the convention.
Last week, Justice Abdullahi Mustapha of the Federal High Court in Lagos had restated an earlier judgment on July 29, 2004 that ordered the parties in the AD crisis to maintain the status quo. He said that the order for the two factions in the AD leadership tussle, Chief Akande and Chief Akinfenwa, which had sought the recognition of the INEC for their factions, still subsisted.
By this decision, the parties conducting a further convention during the pending of the action would be risking the court's sanction, since they had been ordered to desist from any action that will destroy the subject matter of the suit.
He refused the application by Akinfenwa's group to nullify the convention and for the INEC not to recognise any of the officers elected at that convention.
Mustapha said that since the cause of action arose on February 11, when INEC refused to recognise any of the factions as authentic officials of the party and he had ordered for a return to status quo. None of the groups would be recognised by the INEC until the action in court is finally determined.
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