Olajide Meseko
The Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on Monday announced the commencement of the party membership registration and revalidation.
The four weeks exercise which will take place simultaneously in all the wards in the 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will commence on December 12, 2020 to January 9, 2021.
Chairman of the Caretaker Committee, Governor Mai Mala Buni in a statement in Abuja on Monday said the date for the exercise was arrived at after wide consultations with stakeholders including President Muhammadu Buhari.
This development has foreclosed the possibility of the National Convention of the party holding this year as directed by the emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of June 25 which inaugurated the 13-man Caretaker Committee with the mandate to conduct the convention within 6 months.
The Caretaker Committee Chairman assured that registration materials will be distributed to all the wards before the commencement of the exercise and urged members to avail themselves the opportunity of the exercise to revalidate their membership status while prospective members are to take advantage of process to get registered.
The statement reads: “The APC National Caretaker Extraordinary/Convention Planning Committee has concluded arrangement for the commencement of membership registration and revalidation. Having consulted stakeholders, including His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, the APC membership registration and revalidation is scheduled to hold from Saturday, December 12, 2020 to Saturday, January 9, 2021.
“All our members are hereby invited to revalidate their membership in their wards. Similarly, prospective members are also invited to take advantage of the membership registration process to join our party. The membership registration and revalidation will take place simultaneously in every Ward in the country. The process of distributing the membership registration and revalidation materials to all the States, Local Governments and Wards will be concluded before December 12, 2020.”
The Chairman then appealed to States, Local Governments and Wards leaders of the party to take all the necessary steps to ensure smooth and transparent registration exercise, adding that his Committee will continue to provide update of the process on regular basis.
The registration exercise has pitched the caretaker committee against some stakeholders in the party. They argued that the conduct of the registration exercise was not part of the core mandate of the committee; rather it was saddled with the reconciliation of all aggrieved members and to conduct the National Convention for the election of new National Working Committee (NWC) members of the party.
Buni led Caretaker Committee maintained that an authentic and a verifiable party membership register is a precursor for the conduct of a credible National Convention.
