The National Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Ajibola Basiru, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deregister the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
Basiru made the appeal during an interview on Arise Television, stressing that Nigeria’s ballot papers should not be overcrowded with parties he described as nonviable.
“We’re calling on INEC to deregister the ADC. We don’t want the ballot papers to be clustered with unviable political parties.”
He noted that while Nigeria currently has about 19 registered political parties, not all of them meet the required level of electoral relevance.
“First and foremost, the All Progressives Congress is a party registered under Nigerian law, and we are bound to call attention of all institutions to comply with the law. The APC is not the one that wrote the Nigerian constitution. Nigerian constitution is very clear.”
According to him, any political party that fails to meet constitutional thresholds should be removed from the system.
“When you have failed to get certain thresholds of electoral sensibility, such political party should be deregistered and as a political party in a contest, we don’t want our ballot papers to be clustered with irrelevant and unviable political party.”
He added that ongoing legal actions also support calls for ADC’s deregistration, urging INEC to act within its powers.
“That was the basis of our calling the attention of INEC to deregister the ADC. And I’m comforted by the fact that there are even cases in court… INEC should exercise its power.”
Basiru further criticized the party, saying:
“It has been shown that more of noise than action by this so called ‘I’m political party’, particularly the so-called coalition of confusion.”