ADP pays N1m registration fee to INEC

Promoters of a political association, Mega Party, under the auspices of the Action Democratic Party, have paid the mandatory N1m to the Independent National Electoral Commission for the registration of the party.

A top member of the party, Dr. James Okoroma, whose name was forwarded to the commission as the National Secretary of the party, told our correspondent on the telephone on Sunday that the ADP paid the compulsory fee in January this year.

Okoroma stated that the ADP also fulfilled the requirement for the submission of the list of its National Working Committee members to the commission in January.

He said a team sent from the commission visited the ADP’s headquarters in Asokoro, Abuja, and concluded its verification for the process of the registration of the party in February.

Okoroma added that the ADP was only waiting for its certificate of registration from INEC.

According to him, members of the ADP National Working Committee, whose names were on the list submitted to INEC, are Yagbaji Sani (National Chairman), Mr. David Bichi, (National Legal Adviser), a former National Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Rex Onyeabo (National Chairman, South-East), a former Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Nojeem Awodele (National Vice Chairman, South West), and others.

Okoroma said the planned party had several prominent politicians including senators, former ministers and others across the country.

He said, “Yes, that one (N1m) is mandatory. When you want to register, for you to pick up the form, you make that payment. And they (INEC) have done their verification, they have done everything.

“They have come to verify our place, our structures, offices and the rest. We are just awaiting the certificate. We have offices in close to 30 states now; we even have local government and ward offices in some states.

“We paid in January, submitted the list and they came for verification in February. They have done their verification. They came, they sent a team to our national headquarters and did their verification and they promised that they would do their work.”

He said it was important to have a vibrant political party in the country as there was no longer what could be referred to as an opposition party in the country.

When contacted, the Chief Press Secretary to the Chairman of INEC, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, could not confirm the claim that the ADP had fulfilled the conditions for registration.

He said that he could not reach officials with the information to speak on the issue.