Fasheun urges INEC to register UPN

Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, the interim Chairman of the yet-to-be registered Unity Party of Nigeria, has urged the nation’s electoral body to release the party’s certificate of registration.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday, Fasehun said the presentation of the certificate would enable the party to become fully operational.
NAN reports that the Independent National Electoral Commission had on April 29 acknowledged the receipt of an Ecobank cheque No. 130905 of N1 million for a non-refundable registration fee from the UPN.
UPN was inaugurated by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo in 1978 following the lifting of ban on party politics by the military government of then General Olusegun Obasanjo.
Awolowo contested the presidential election twice in1979 and 1983 on the platform of the party, while the party won all the governorship seats in the South West before it was banned alongside other parties in December 1983 following a coup d’état.
Fasehun said: “We have also filled some forms and paid a non-refundable registration fee of N1 million.
“We are waiting for our certificate because we are constitutionally registered by INEC.
“Without the certificate, we cannot operate as a political party and actualise our programmes as required by law.”
Fasehun said following the acknowledgement of the application, the association had gone ahead to fulfill the conditions for registration as contained in Section 222 (a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
The party has established its headquarters in the FCT, produced a constitution and a manifesto as part of the requirements, he added.
Fasehun, who is the founder of the Odu’a People’s Congress, however, ruled out any merger with other parties if registered.
He added: “UPN has not seen any significant difference in all the major parties in terms of ideology, governance, internal democracy and moral uprightness.
“We are, therefore, not thinking of a merger.”
Fasehun also said the party would focus on the ideologies of the late Awolowo – free education, free health, integrated rural development, social welfare, good governance and fight against corruption.
Others, he said, included mass affordable housing, functional transportation system and full empowerment for women.