The National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh , has given APC and Babatunde Raji Fashola seven days to publish a retraction in all newspapers where the governor had published adverts congratulating the new party for a successful registration. He further added that the party would demand 20 Billion Naira from the governor. In fact read the full excerpts exclusively reported by National Mirror
Speaking with newsmen in Abuja yesterday, Umeh said in an advertorial published in some newspapers and personally signed by Fashola, the governor included the name of APGA and logo.
He said: “Coming from a senior lawyer, we are sure that the governor knows the obvious implications of this advertorial which we detest. “It is a mischief contrived to deceive all our teaming supporters in Nigeria and worldwide that APGA has now become part of APC.
“Governor Fashola cannot claim not to know that APGA never submitted itself to any merger talks with the three parties and other interest groups that came together to form the APC. “He is aware that at no time did any APGA official appear in any meeting where merger talks were held.
“He is also aware that APGA leadership has consistently made it clear to Nigerians that APGA was never part of the merger talks and will never be part of it.
“Surprisingly this morning (yesterday) our party logo was so fraudulently inserted in an advertorial with the intention to deceive all our supporters.” Umeh recalled that while announcing the registration of APC, INEC named the parties that merged as CPC, ANPP and ACN, adding that the commission had accordingly withdrawn the certificates of the three parties. He said:
“How could a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, who is also a governor of a state go and insert an APGA logo in a publication. “We want to make it abundantly clear that this was a clearly orchestrated, premeditated action by Governor Fashola to deceive supporters of APGA and on behalf of our party we are calling on Governor Fashola to publish a retraction of the advertorial removing APGA logo in all the newspapers that our logo appeared today within seven days.
“In addition to our demands for retraction of the publication, we are also referring the matter to our lawyers to formally write Governor Fashola to pay us damages in the sum of N20 billion or face legal action.
“While we congratulate APC for realising their dream of forming a mega party called APC, fraudulently using APGA logo will not be accepted by our party. “Politics of confusion must be avoided in Nigeria. Anybody can meet to do whatever he likes but it must be within the law.
The process of merging of political parties is clearly known to everybody. “ACN had its convention where they approved that they would become part of APC, ANPP had a convention where they also approved that they would become part of APC, the same with the CPC, but APGA was not known to have organised any convention to approve joining APC.”
Umeh said as a lawyer of many years standing, Fashola could not claim to be unaware that APGA did not carry out any of these processes to associate the party’s logo with APC. The APGA chairman advised APC not to be too desperate but to pursue politics with decorum.
He added: “If they are desperate to recruit APGA in their ranks, they should know that it is not by force. “This is a clear way of stealing our supporters and we will not tolerate that and we hope this act is a sign of what Nigerians are to expect in the months to come.
“We advise APC to play by the rules; acts of political desperation will not take it any way. As for APGA, we have resolved to stand on our own and canvass for the electorate’s votes. If they are making any pretentions that they have taken over Nigeria, they should go and appeal to Nigerians for their votes and not by attempting to steal our supporters.”
