News and Events

33 groups seek to register as political parties in Nigeria

Source: (AFP)    
Date: May 2 2002

A total of 33 groups have applied for registration as political parties ahead of general elections in Nigeria next year, electoral officials said Tuesday. The deadline set by the electoral agency for registration expired midnight Monday. "Thirty-three political associations have submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission their statements of intent to be registered as political parties," the agency's spokesman, Segun Adeogun, said in a statement. One of the prominent associations seeking approval is the United Nigeria
Democratic Party (UNDP), a group widely linked with former military ruler Ibrahim Babangida. Babangida's deputy, Augustus Aikhomu, many former ministers, state governors, top military officers and aides who served in the regime of the dictator are believed to be members of the UNDP. Aikhomu told journalists Tuesday that UNDP was working out a merger with the All People's Party (APP) ahead of the 2003 poll.
A meeting to discuss the merger was held here Tuesday, he added. The APP is one of the three existing political parties and second in importance to the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). "We resolved to come together to actualise a formidable political party platform that will engender good governance in Nigeria," Aikhomu said. Chiefs of the two political groups who attended the forum condemned the
rule of President Olusegun Obasanjo and programmes of his PDP. Last week here, Obasanjo announced his intention to seek re-election in 2003 poll under the banner of the PDP.