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The Ribadu Campaign
Organisation yesterday threatened to drag the Jonathan/Sambo campaign
organisation to court over its alleged gross violation of the
intellectual property rights of its campaign for Nuhu Ribadu, a
presidential aspirant on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria
(ACN). This is contained in a statement by Chido Onumah, head of media
and communication of Ribadu 2011 Campaign Organisation in Abuja.

The statement read;
“The issue in question is the slogan A NEW NIGERIA IS POSSIBLE, a
creation of the Ribadu Campaign Organisation that has been used in
various platforms, correspondences, media and publicity materials by
the campaign since its inauguration six months ago. In the last one
month, the Jonathan/Sambo campaign organization has persistently used
the slogan in its TV campaigns featuring President Goodluck Jonathan
and Vice-president Namadi Sambo.”

The organisation
said that it has written a letter to the director-general of the
Goodluck/Sambo Campaign Organisation, Dalhatu Tafida, in which it noted
that “the unauthorised use of the political slogan constitutes a
copyright infringement, which represents a serious breach on Mr. Nuhu
Ribadu’s exclusive rights to reproduce or to make derivative works of
this slogan.”

The letter, signed
by Mr Onumah himself added, “Nigerian law provides stern criminal and
civil liabilities for this type of transgression and I urge you to move
expeditiously to correct this infraction which, in an election year, is
obviously targeted to depress the stock of our principal, and the
viability of his campaign.”

Plea to ACN

Meanwhile, members
of the Team Ribadu USA and UK have written the leadership of the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) asking it to adopt Mr Ribadu as its
presidential candidate if the party hopes to win the 2011 presidential
election. The ACN has fixed January 14 for its presidential primaries.

The two groups,
which wrote separate letters to the party leadership, warned that if it
fails to nominate the former chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission (EFCC) as its flagbearer, it will diminish its
chances of winning the presidential election.

“You will also
agree with us that the ACN has attracted more followership,
particularly among the youth of our country since Mr. Nuhu Ribadu made
known his intention to run on the platform of the party. There is no
doubt that the Team Ribadu phenomenon in our country (and abroad) today
has further popularized our great party, (ACN),” Bunmi Aborisade,
coordinator of Team Ribadu USA said in his letter.

“It is an
incontrovertible fact that many Nigerians flocked to our party because
of Ribadu’s anti-corruption records as the head of the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission, (EFCC). Nigerians want to see an
anti-corruption czar like Ribadu become the president of Nigeria so he
can sanitize the country.”

Mr Aborishade noted
that while Team Ribadu USA respects the integrity of the new ACN
national executive and the ability of the party’s leadership to make
the right decisions during its primaries, it was worried by the party’s
propensity for fielding presidential candidates from other political
parties.

“Our fears over any
alliance by ACN became more pronounced when we reflect on how past
alliances led to undeserved defeats,” he said. “You will recall the
alliance between the Alliance for Democracy, AD, in 1999 and the All
People’s Party, APP, which did not yield the desired results. There are
also some lessons to learn from the unholy accord between the
leadership of Action Congress, AC, and former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, which led to the defeat of the party in the Southwest. The
adoption of the former Vice President Abubakar Atiku of the PDP by the
AC as its presidential candidate and how the party lost the 2007
elections is still fresh in our memory. It is in line with the above
antecedent that we will like the ACN to limit its search for a
presidential candidate to the party to avoid losing the 2011
presidential election, which may spell doom for our country. What ACN
needs to win the 2011 presidential election is a credible candidate
that has good followership in all of the geo-political zones of the
country. We believe that Mr. Ribadu meets all of the requirements.”