APC membership registration exercise in Kwara a sham, says caretaker committee

Members of the caretaker executive committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara have rejected the ongoing membership registration and revalidation exercise in the state, describing it as “a sham”.

Speaking at a media briefing on Wednesday, which held at the party’s secretariat in Ilorin, the committee declared that the process in many registration centres in the state was in breach of the APC’s guidelines on the exercise.

Sunday Oyebiyi, vice chairman of Kwara APC, who read a statement signed by 26 members of the committee, said the executives were not carried along in the events leading to the exercise.

He said the current registration and revalidation exercise ought to be considered beyond the crisis in the party.

“We are in the dark till this very moment as per the process of the registration exercise. The same is true of our LGA chairmen and their executives and the ward chairmen and their executives,” Oyebiyi said.

“Assuming without conceding that the chairman, Bashir Bolarinwa, is suspended, are we all also suspended? Is the organising secretary, Samuel Ndazoko Isa, who by our party’s constitution is supposed to be responsible for the exercise, also suspended? Are the majority members of the executive committee here present also suspended? So, why did the senator John Danboyi-led team sidestep all of us?

“If this is bad, what is happening on the field is worse. The guidelines are being severely raped across all the 1,872 units without exception.

“Unfortunately, senator John Danboyi and his team are not only looking away, they are also seemingly enabling these aberrations for reasons best known to them.

“In virtually all units of the state that we have monitored, both the registration forms and the register of members are never provided. Instead, party members who are revalidating and others who are prospective are being asked to write their personal details, including their NIN, on a rough sheet of paper.

“If we, the state executive committee members are in the dark, if the LGA chairmen and their executives are in the dark, if the ward chairmen and their executives are in the dark, what then is the essence of the exercise?”

He said the party is alarmed that “minority elements” in the party are holding the majority of members to ransom.

“Why are people not given the temporary membership slip as the guidelines stipulate?” he asked.

“We are ashamed that the legitimate expectations of several thousands of members are being dashed right under our noses and we are unable to do anything about it.”

Oyebiyi, who called for a level playing field in the conduct of the registration exercise, added that the guidelines as enumerated by the party’s national leadership must be adhered to.

The state APC has been embroiled in a stakeholders’ crisis following the removal of Bashir Bolarinwa as chairman of the party, by the Mai Mala Buni-led national caretaker committee.