WHAT'S IN A NAME : APC Mega Party didn’t apply for registration, ‘until 5 days ago’ ... Prof Jega, INEC Chairman.

…Says APC didn’t apply for registration, ‘until 5 days ago’

Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, yesterday admitted that the 2011 elections were marred by mistakes, saying such would not repeat itself in 2015.

Jega, featuring on Radio Nigeria, Kaduna National Station’s Hausa programme, Hanu Dayawa, said the commission had introduced new changes that would ensure free and transparent elections in future.

On the controversy surrounding the registration of All Progressives Congress (APC), the INEC boss said no political party had notified the commission of merger talks, much less registration.

His words: “We are doing our best to ensure that the mistakes we made in the past are corrected. We are trying to introduce new things to bring about change in the system.

“This issue has generated controversy in the past few weeks. First, the truth is that no political party had written to notify us that it is planning to merge with some other political parties until the past five days or so. “Therefore, it is not true that we had been notified.

The issue became serious when one group came out to seek for registration, I guess that was what made them to write and notify us.” He added: “We are doing our best to ensure that the 2015 elections will be more credible than that of 2011 We have been working hard towards this. We have reviewed the past and are looking at what we can do to improve on our performances.”

Jega, however, denied collecting money from politicians. “People have said a lot of things on this. I have not collected money from anybody and I didn’t go to INEC to collect money from politicians. If I wanted money, with the education that God has given me and other means, I would have used them to make the money,” he said.