38 parties gang up against PDP •Ahead of 2015 elections •Set up steering committee

Bamanga Tukur

AHEAD of the 2015 general election, state chairmen of about 38 deregistered and surviving political parties converged on Abuja on Friday night where they met behind closed doors for hours over how to form a formidable opposition against the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Sunday Tribune exclusively gathered that the meeting expressed dissatisfaction over and condemned in strong terms the way the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) handled the deregistration of 31 political parties without prior notification.
According to a reliable source that was at the meeting, the group believed that the commission ought to have come out with new rules and guidelines to be met by political parties so as to continue to exist and to allow those political parties that could not meet up to personally close shops, “rather than outright deregistration without consultation.”
It was gathered that after several hours of deliberations, the group came up with three options as way forward for their relevance in the 2015 elections against the PDP.
According to our source, the first option for was for the 31 deregistered parties and willing surviving ones to key into the ongoing merger arrangements being promoted by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) with a view to mobilising their different national leadership to support the merger so that a strong opposition party would emerge against the PDP.
The other option being considered by the group, the source further explained, was to float a new political party, should the merger arrangement fail, while the third option was said to be for the group to transform into a formidable pressure group which would endorse a credible presidential candidate and candidates into all other elective offices at all levels on the platform of any other political party.
Our source further hinted that the group set up a nine-man steering committee saddled with the responsibility of coordinating its activities and engaging in further consultations and sensitisation of members across the states of the nation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The committee is also expected to visit the six geopolitical zones in the country to consult with opinion leaders and people of like minds over the activities of the group and to organise a national conference within three weeks where the three options stated above would be tabled, discussed and one adopted.
Sunday Tribune learnt that representatives of the affected parties were directed to go back home and brief their respective national leadership about activities of the group so as to avoid friction.
Some of the political parties, existing and defunct, represented at the meeting, according to our source, include, Labour Party (LP), ANPP, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Alliance for Democracy (AD), African Renaissance Party (ARP), National Conscience Party (NCP), National Democratic Party (NDP) and Social Democratic Mega Party (SDMP), among others.
One of the facilitators of the meeting from Niger State who confirmed the development to Sunday Tribune in confidence in Abuja on Saturday declared that the group was out to form a formidable opposition in the country against the ruling party ahead of 2015 “in the overall interest of the country.”
According to him, “yes, I can confirm to you that about 38 registered and deregistered political parties met here in Abuja on Friday night for several hours over the way forward about the political situation in the country. Very soon, Nigerians will hear from us. I cannot go into details now for strategic reasons.”