APC extends e-registration exercise, targets over 12.5 million members

By Jude Opara, Abuja

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Friday extended the ongoing membership e-registration exercise from the original terminal date of January 31 to February 8, 2026.

Briefing newsmen after its emergency National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, the duo of National Secretary, Sen. Ajibola Basiru and the National Publicity Secretary (NPS), Barr. Felix Morka said the party is targeting to have registered more than 12.5 members, after exceeding its original target of seven million registered members.

They explained that the extension was necessitated after several requests form stakeholders across the country, including the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) who made a formal request after their meeting Wednesday.

While giving a detained account of what transpired in the meeting, Morka said; “The NWC met, first, to extend the membership e-registration exercise from the 31st of January 2026 to February the 8th, 2026.

“Second, that our Ward Congresses will hold on Wednesday, February 18, 2026, with the National Convention to take place on March 27th to 28th, 2026”.

He also explained that the Congresses, we will not hold in Osun, Ekiti, Rivers states as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) because of the elections slated to hold in the states of Osun, Ekiti and the FCT. In the case of Rivers, the NPS revealed that they recently help off- cycle congresses there, adding that those who were elected should be allowed to serve out their terms.

“The National Working Committee also approved the composition of the coordinating committee for our National Convention. That we believe will be published on Monday, so we can have the full list of membership and chairmanship of that committee”.

Throwing more lights into the outcome of the meeting, the National Secretary, Sen. Basiru said the party decided to extend the membership e-registration exercise because they want to have more members, adding that many Nigerians are enthusiastic in joining the ruling party.

“Concerning the E-registration, look, there’s no explanation, we just want more members to register. We’re responding to the clamour by enthusiastic members who are hoping to register, to afford them more time to register. That’s the explanation for that”.

Basiru equally debunked the claims in certain quarters that the e-registration exercise was not taking place in some parts of the country, insisting that the APC has recorded a huge membership from every part of the country.

He added that the party has complied with all the data capturing laws of the country by insisting that the National Identification Number (NIN) and the Voter Identification Number (VIN) must be used to authenticate every registration.

He further boasted that the APC has even gone ahead of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by using NIN for registration; even he recommended that using the national document to vote will not be a bad idea.

“You know, the e-registration is based on two essential requirements. You must have the NIN, and you must have the Voter Identification Number. One, our NIN is the basis for any data by law in Nigeria. So for any data to be gathered, you must have NIN to support it.

“In fact, INEC ought to start looking at having the voter’s register to be NIN based. So APC is ahead of even INEC in terms of complying with the law. Secondly too, NIN is the basis for any financial inclusion. You cannot operate and have a bank account without NIN.

“As of now, when I came here about a week or so ago, I said that we are going to cross the mark of 7 million. We have crossed that mark and by the grace of God, by the time we are closing on the 8th of February, we should have crossed the mark of 12.5 million by the grace of God”, Basiru concluded.