By Dapo Akinrefon

Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, has dissociated itself from the alleged alliance of 32 political parties mobilised to fight the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2011 elections.

The party said, yesterday, that it was neither consulted nor involved in the meetings that led to the arrangement that was announced by elder statesman and former Lagos State Governor, Alhaji Lateef Jakande.

Alhaji Lai Mohammmed, ACN’s National Publicity Secretary who spoke to Vanguard on the development, yesterday, said the party was also bent on sustaining its integrity and identity and would as such not enter into any alliance that would submerge it.

He said: “I am not aware that ACN was represented by anybody and if at all ACN was represented, nobody reported back to the national caucus of ACN; and obviously, nobody can tell of our position without getting back to the party.
“So, as far as we are concerned, it cannot be the position of the party.”

The alliance

It would be recalled that leading politicians of about 32 political parties met and agreed to produce consensus candidates at all levels in the forthcoming general polls.

Alhaji Mohammed denied that the ACN was ever represented at the political meeting where agreements were reached to unite as a formidable force to wrest power from the PDP, come 2011.
The party’s spokesman, however, maintained that the ACN intends to maintain its identity reiterating that there is no possibility of the party agreeing to produce a joint candidate.

The denial

He said: “We cannot be part of any agreement that will jointly present a candidate. We intend to maintain our identity, we intend to have faith in our party. We welcome anybody that wants to join us.

“We welcome anybody that wants to contest on our platform, but we are not going to be part of the 32 political parties coming together to produce a consensus candidate.

“What platform are we going to use? Which party platform are we going to use? And how do we conduct primaries?”