2015: UPN APPLIES FOR REGISTRATION WITH INEC

In
preparation for the 2015 general election, revived Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN)
has officially applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
for registration as a new party.

UPN,
the party on which platform Chief Obafemi Awolowo contested the presidential
election in the Second Republic, is being promoted by Dr Fredrick Fasehun and
many other Awoists, especially young Turks, within and outside the country,

The
party’s application was submitted at the department of party registration at
INEC headquarters in Abuja on Thursday by the chairman of the party’s Contact
and Mobilisation Committee, Honourable Bari Adedeji Salawu.

Although
the application was accepted and filed by INEC, the electoral body did not
receive the N1million registration fee brought by the UPN officials.

Speaking
with the Nigerian Tribune on why the money was rejected, Honourable Salawu
explained that the circular that jacked up the registration fee from N100,000
to N1million had not been signed by the appropriate authorities.

Salawu
quoted INEC Director of Party Registration, Mrs Regina Omo-Agege, as having
said that the fee would be accepted as soon as the circular is signed, adding
that the party would be registered by INEC and it would take part in the next
round of elections.

He
noted that the scenario that played out recently with different parties laying
claim to the acronym APC would not happen to UPN because the party, through its
lawyers, had earlier notified INEC of its intention to register as UPN.

He
assured the people of the South-West and the entire country that UPN would
re-enact the achievements recorded by Chief Awolowo as Premier of the defunct
Western Region, achievements that still dot the region’s landscape till today.