The All Progressives Congress (APC) has to change its name before it can be registered, Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has ruled.

Two INEC officials who spoke with newsmen in the Nigerian capital Abuja yesterday disclosed that another party, African Peoples Congress (APC), had already applied to the commission for registration, meaning that no other party can use the abbreviation APC.

INEC Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Kayode Idowu, therefore urged the country’s opposition parties who are in the process of forming the mega party to consider finding a new name and abbreviation.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nick Dazang, another spokesman for INEC, was emphatic that the commission would not register a party with a name already approved for another.

“It is true that a group applied to register as political party with the name African People’s Congress (APC). And INEC has received the application but it is yet to sit down and work on the application,” Dazang said in a BBC Hausa programme.

Daily Trust newspaper which monitored the programme reports Dazang as saying that when All Progressives Congress eventually applies for registration INEC “will first of all look at the application, to find out if it meets registration requirements.”

Continuing, he said: “As we say, those parties who are planning for merger have a lot to do. They are going to do national convention and after that they will come with their application to INEC and it must do this within 200 days before the next elections. But if it is a new party there is no need for all this. The merging parties are yet to come to us with their request and there is need for them to come and tell INEC this is our request.”

Asked if the application may be to sabotage the process of registering the All Progressives Congress, Dazang said: “Maybe it is true, but we do not have any evidence.”

•Photo: INEC Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega.