Abuja - Dike Ogbuehi, the National Publicity Secretary, United Progressive Party (UPP), said on Friday that the recent merger by the four political parties in the country, would be a “fruitless exercise''.
Ogbuehi made the prediction in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
``When I view the news on the television about the merger, it amused me because I do not expect men of integrity to come together to plan what will not see the light of the day.
``It appears as if they did not know the provisions of the Electoral Act before coming together to merge as a political party,” he said
He reminded the stakeholders in the merger that ``you will have to surrender your certificate of registration to INEC, your identity, logo, name and every other thing will have to go in the name of merger''.
``To me, I am sure they are talking about alliance and not merger because if it is a merger, I do not see it working at all,'' Ogbuehi further said.
He said that politicians who initiated the merger were of different political ideologies, personalities and divergent interests.
`` I do not see the likes of Bola Tinubu, Muhammadu Buhari, Mr Victor Umeh and Dr Ogbonnaya Onu becoming subservient to the leadership of the party.
``We in UPP are not part of the merger and we can never be part of it, because we are not ready to surrender our identity for whatever reason.
``We have come to stay and we have sold this party to Nigerians as their platform to enable them actualise their long awaited political dreams,'' Ogbuehi said.
He said that he would not take the initiators of the merger serious until the proposed All Progressives Congress (APC) is approved by INEC for it to become a full-fledged political party.
NAN