Furore Over Kwara APC Membership Registration

Furore Over Kwara APC Membership Registration

POLITICS DIGEST – The All Progressives Congress (APC) membership registration is tearing apart members of the Kwara State chapter. Correspondent Adekunle Jimoh examines the accusations and counter-accusations against the party leadership.

The battle for the soul of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara State has continued unabated. This internal wrangling is expectedly shaking the party to its very foundations ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The supremacy battle has factionalised the party into different groups or tendencies with Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq allegedly favaourably disposed to a particular group.

The unending crisis has culminated in the rejection and counter rejection of the ongoing APC membership revalidation and registration exercise.

A faction of the party, led by Information and Culture Minister Lai Mohammed has described the Senator John Danboyi-led membership registration committee as a ruse.

Mohammed alleged that the exercise was fraud with irregularities in the state.

He urged the national secretariat of the party to instead, put in place a process that will ensure the conduct of a credible and fair exercise that will enjoy the support and confidence of all.

Mohamed also called for the “immediate disbandment of the Senator John Danboyi-led membership registration committee for the state. A vast majority of the APC stakeholders in the state have lost confidence in the committee.

“The constitution of a fresh membership registration committee that is truly independent, non-compromised and sensitive to the delicate diverse interests in the party; a thorough investigation into the botched membership registration by the Senator John Danboyi-led committee.’

He added: “That these demands are the irreducible minimum requirements for peace and progress in the Kwara APC.”

He said that reports from the monitoring teams had shown that the whole exercise did not comply with the stipulated guidelines.

Said he: “The guidelines stipulate consultation with all stakeholders by the registration officials from Abuja. After the botched attempt to have a meeting of stakeholders, due to orchestrated violence, the registration officials failed to consult with all stakeholders before the commencement of the membership registration exercise, opting instead to work with only one of the four tendencies here in Kwara, the Fagbemi group to which Governor AbdulRaman Abdulrazaq belongs, thus excluding the three other tendencies – The Akogun Group, the Gbemi Saraki Group and the Lai Mohammed group, without which the ‘Otoge’ movement would not have succeeded.

“Ironically, the Fagbemi group is the weakest of the four tendencies. Out of the 193 wards in the state, the group has only nine ward chairmen and does not have even one local government chairman. Even at the state exco, the Fagbemi group has only four members.

“Also, the recruitment of officials for the registration has been a one-sided affair and indications are that the hand-picked ‘officials are under strict orders from above’ as to how to carry out the exercise. We have evidence to corroborate this.

“When the registration officials from Abuja landed in Ilorin, they simply handed over the registration materials to an individual, not recognised by the provisions of the guidelines, who has decided to hoard them instead of distributing them to the wards (we also have evidence to back this up).

“The implication is that the registration is being carried out without party membership register, while temporary membership slips, to be signed and detached from the forms after registration, are not being given to those who have purportedly registered.”

He alleged that there is a “clear indication yet that the police and other security agencies may be complicit in the mess being made of the membership registration in Kwara State.

“Instead of membership registers, conniving registration officials are using exercise books or foolscap sheets to register members.

More worrisome is that members who have purportedly registered are being asked to come back for their registration slips. Till date, no such member has been given the registration slip.

“Also, due to the shoddy and non-compliant mode of registration, using exercise books and foolscap sheets instead of the membership register, many members are unwilling to submit their personal details via such unsecured and illegal process.

There seems a deliberate policy of exclusion by the registration tram from Abuja and their collaborators.

“It seems there is a plan to de-register even high-ranking members and stakeholders who have not only paid their dues in the party, but without whose contribution this government would not have been in power. For example, at the Registration Unit of Senator Gbemi Saraki, Minister of State for Transport, which is PU 005 at Ode-Opobiyi in Ajikobi Ward of Ilorin West LGA, not a single registration official has been sighted at the designated point since the commencement of the exercise, not to talk of registration materials. This is the situation in all other places considered to be the stronghold of high-ranking party members.

“There is no stronger evidence of deliberate exclusion than this.

Also, if the purpose of this registration exercise is to revalidate old members and register new ones, why then are people being prevented from registering? Meanwhile, members across the state who have complained about the non-compliance with the guidelines have been arrested and threatened with prosecution, while many have been beaten up. At the last count, over 100 of our members have had to been bailed from police stations.

“They have not had any useful interaction with lawful members of the state exco as well as party leaders and other stakeholders.

“It is clear, from what I have enumerated above, that there seems to be a policy to massively disenfranchise/de-register APC members in the state. This has left many members disillusioned.”

Also caretaker executive committee members loyal to the suspended state chairman, Bashir Bolairnwa, said the exercise in the state has been a sham.

The group added that the exercise is being carried out in clear and brazen breaches of the registration guidelines across all units in the state.

Vice Chairman of the caretaker committee Chief Sunday Odebiyi told reporters in Ilorin, the state capital, that majority of the exco members was not carried along in the events leading to the exercise.

Said he: “Assuming that without conceding that the chairman Bolairnwa is suspended, are we all also suspended? Is the majority members of the executive committee here present also suspended? Why did the Senator Danboyi-led team sidestep all of us.

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

Odebiyi alleged that registration materials are being hoarded, saying in virtually all the units both registration forms and register of members are not provided.

He claimed that based on the non availability of materials greater majority of Bolairnwa faction is yet to register.

He continued that “we demand for a level playing field in the registration exercise; we demand an immediate deployment of the registration materials to all the units without exception. We demand that they be brought out from where they are presently being hoarded.

“We demand a complete stop to the use of exercise books to record the personal details of the registrants.

“We demand a more inclusive approach to the exercise. 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?

“We urge our members to continue to be peaceful and law-abiding.

“As leaders of the party, we are alarmed by what is playing out in our party. We are disappointed too, and we are ashamed. We are alarmed that a minority elements in the party are holding the majority of members to ransom.

“We are disappointed that the people that should put things right and straight are not only looking away, but are giving tacit support to the aberrations for pecuniary reasons.”

He added that issues at stake transcend both Bolairnwa and Governor AbdulRaman Abdulrazaq.

Chief Odebiyi said the issues border on the hopes and aspirations of thousands of Kwarans who “worked tirelessly to bring the APC in the state thus far but are now relegated and abused for no fault of theirs.”

But, Caretaker chairman loyal to Governor AbdulRazaq, Abdullahi Samari, said that the minister’s decision to participate in the exercise put a lie to claims that party members were not allowed to take part in the exercise, which he said has been peaceful and orderly in the state.

“The party welcomes the decision of Alhaji Lai Mohammed to embrace the process and join the teeming members of our party who are revalidating their membership at their respective polling units. The process is obviously open to all,” Samari said in the statement.

Two groups in APC known, the Youth Stakeholders Kwara South Caucus and Kwara South APC Youth Stakeholders, held divergent views on the matter.

The latter said that the registration exercise had been adjudged as peaceful and orderly by the vast majority of APC leaders and members in the state.

Leader of the Kwara South APC Mallam Tiamiyu Mumini said: “To our surprise and utter displeasure, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed came from Abuja, joined by the embattled erstwhile caretaker chairman, Bashir Omolaja Bolarinwa to condemn and rubbish the exercise as he called for its cancellation.

“The pertinent question to ask is: Why then did you participate, when you feel malcontented from onset? It is utterly nonsensical to participate in a process and turn around to call for its cancellation.

“We see this as an attempt to destabilise the peace which the party members have been enjoying in the state, turn things head down and cause commotion.”

along all tendencies and interest groups within the APC Kwara State.”

Giving reasons for the cancellation call of the whole exercise in the state Ahmed said that: “Many stakeholders and their supporters are yet to be registered by the party. In fact, there are several wards where the APC registration booklet have never been sighted. In view of the various biased and unjust disposition of the Senator John Danboyi-led APC membership registration and revalidation committee, it is clear that the process was flawed from the beginning and designed to favour the loyalists of the state governor.

“In view of the selective deregistration and disenfranchisement of loyal supporters of APC in Kwara state, which was done unfortunately and with unchecked impunity in the presence of the electorate who were themselves likewise denied registration, we are of the view, that our party is being ridiculed and painted in a bad light. This is likely to form a negative opinion poll against our party in future elections if not properly addressed.”

The Nation