Truncate APC membership registration, revalidation exercise, face war – Gov Bello

By Ikechukwu Okaforadi

The chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) membership/registration revalidation committee, Abubakar Sani Bello, who is also the Governor of Niger State, has cautioned party stakeholders and leaders across all level, against truncating the ongoing nationwide registration and revalidation exercise for party members or face severe consequences.

While inaugurating the members of the committee at the state level in Abuja yesterday, Governor Bello, accompanied by the Governor of Kano State, Umar Ganduje, and some senators and House of Representatives members, said there must not be sabotage.

He charged members of the committee across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to always uphold equity, fairness and justice during the exercise, warned against any attempt to dominate some members or group.

In his remarks, Bello said “please note that the objective of this exercise is to ensure that no one is left behind. It is to make sure that any interested person or group are free to join APC and this is out of our believe that people make party, the more the merrier.

“We should also note that commandeering or theft or hijacking registration materials will not be tolerated. You should also note that domination of registration process by an individual or group will also not be accepted.

”The whole intention of this exercise is to expand our membership base, for we believe that when this is done, it will increase our chances in the next coming election.

“I appeal to the chairman and secretaries of this committee to stand their ground and ensure that justice and fairness prevail”.

He said “please note that the last exercise was done in 2014 and since then we have members that have lost their lives, may their souls rest in perfect peace.

“We have very few members that have left the party, we have many members that have joined the party, we have young boys and girls who have turned 18 in between 2014 and today and we believe that they should be given the opportunity to register as members of our great party, the APC.

“We also have numerous number of people that have decamped from various parties to APC, we also have numerous number of people that have come from other party and have joined us and overtime they have this feeling that they have not been fully accepted into the APC family.

“This provide for them an opportunity to be fully accepted or to feel at home during the evaluation exercise.”

Fielding questions from journalists, the Kano State Governor, Abdulllahi Umar Ganduje, said Kano, considering its population, would be proven to be the largest democracy in Nigeria.

Ganduje said “Considering how people are eager to go for this registration because so many new entrants are in the party now but without registration. Also few ones that had left, their names are not yet deleted and there are many young men and women, whose ages have reached for them to be registered and they would be registered.

“So, I believe we are going to have a very effective and efficient registration process and we will end up with very high members that are registered.

“We (Kano) are the largest democracy in Nigeria through the registration exercise. We shall prove to all that we are indeed the largest democracy in the country”, he said.