Pressure from “high quarters” is said to be mounting on the principal officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to register Team New Nigeria (TNN) as political party in Nigeria.
In a statement made available to the press and signed by the TNN spokesperson, Dr Mohammed Adah Shaibu, in Kaduna stated that the association had applied for registration since 2024.
According to the statement, the application for registration has been submitted to INEC and was acknowledged since May 27, 2024.
He expressed dismay that “since the submission of the application for registration, INEC only wrote an acknowledgment letter promising to notify them when the registration portal will be opened for submission of application and documentation, and all efforts made to remind the INEC Chairman, Professor Yakubu Mahmoud of the intendment of the Constitution and the Electoral Act has proven abortive, despite the passage of the 90 days threshold, the period within which the Commission’s Guidelines mandatorily required him to respond to such letter of intent”.
“For how long should we wait, to get registered? Our presence is all over the country and we have limited time to deliver our manifestos to the electorates.
“There is no doubt that INEC is under tremendous pressure, from both the card-carrying APC members of the Commission and their collaborators who are mortally afraid of the TNN, and who will want the electoral body to commence, right now, the process of rigging the 2027 election in their favour.
”But we urge INEC not to compromise its neutrality and integrity by acting contrary to the law. We remind the Commission that Nigerians are keenly watching how it will handle this TNN issue, and whatever it does will determine whether or not Nigerians can count on it to organise free, fair, and credible elections in 2027,” the statement said.
He also said, ”Given the already over-heated polity ahead of the 2027 elections, we believe INEC will not do anything that will aggravate the situation”.
He urged the commission to comply with its Regulations/Guidelines and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which would in turn enable his group registration as a political party in accordance with the laws of the land and to contest elections across all strata from local government council elections to the general elections.
Meanwhile, TNN has appealed to all the supporters of what it called ‘the emerging New Nigeria across the country to remain calm over the registration issue.
”We know that many of our teeming supporters are upset by the report of the shenanigans in INEC over this issue. But they need to remain law-abiding as we await the decision of the INEC.”