APC membership registration ends, fresh controversy begins

The controversial membership registration and revalidation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) officially ended on Tuesday with a total of 36 million membership forms doled out by the national caretaker leadership. 

However, the exercise which was birthed in controversy when denounced by some front-row leaders isn’t ending quietly as fresh issues are being thrown up by the intra-party politicking that defined the entire duration of the exercise. 

Already, contending tendencies in some state chapters are gearing up for appeal over some contentious claims. 

Though factional groups in the state chapters were asked to work together by the national leadership with a directive that no intending registrant should be turned back regardless of caucus affiliations, some chieftains not favoured by the exercise, have been crying foul. 

It was learnt on Monday evening that the committees sent from Abuja to states to coordinate the exercise have been asked to serve as the appeal panels. 

They have a week to conclude the appeal phase of the exercise before moving their collated and certified registers to the party headquarters in Abuja. 

However, in some state chapters where factions at the receiving end had earlier disavowed committees sent to them for alleged bias and partiality, the national headquarters now appears their next destination to ensure fairness and justice. 

Apart from sitting as appeal panels, these committees, according to findings, are also mandated to have the compiled lists pasted at registration points for members to be assured they were actually captured. Nigerian Tribune was told by a chieftain of the party that already, an avalanche of complaints against the said committees, is before Abuja and what they would eventually transfer to the national body may not be acceptable to many critical stakeholders. In three South West states (identities withheld), the exercise is already showing signs of serious strains and in one of them, a sitting governor who appears to be coasting home to victory over an influential senator, is likely to run into a maelstrom in Abuja. 

The senator is reportedly waiting patiently and pressing the right buttons in Abuja to have most of the names on the governor’s list expunged. 

The contention over who controls the largest chunk of the crowd at state level, is tied to efforts at gaining ascendancy during the coming congresses where new leaders are going to be elected at all levels. 

Controlling huge following and the executive members of the party is a solid assurance in seeking tickets to contest elections in 2023, since primary elections for candidate nomination are strictly party affairs. 

The battle over the membership registration is mainly over the 2023 governorship ticket and the aspirants trying to seal the control of the party ahead of time. 

There is a possibility of a group eventually pulling out for the arrowhead to actualize his governorship dream elsewhere. In another of the earliermentioned three states, a governor who is in a fierce intra-party re-election battle, is currently scoring a huge one over his local traducer and also having a smooth sail with Abuja where he is a decisionmaker. 

It was learnt his local competitor who operates from Abuja won’t quit the party for him, even if reduced to a junior partner, but feelers from his group suggest a spoiler game in the wings. 

A party chieftain in Ekiti State told Nigerian Tribune that Governor Kayode Fayemi is in control of the exercise, but allegedly mismanaging his firm hold on the party, by ostracizing influential members who could challenge some of his decisions. 

In Lagos, factions belonging to Fouad Oki and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, have refrained from public comments on who has gained ascendancy coming off from the exercise. However, there have been accusations of the registration forms being used to pack the new register with fictitious members. 

Checks revealed that a move was already on to get most of the suspicious completed registration forms voided by the committee sent to the state which members have stayed back in the state all through the period of the exercise. 

In Kwara, the faction loyal to Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, had ceased agitation but it is not yet clear if it would appeal the outcome in the state. 

The national leadership has increased the total polling units in the country from the current 119,973 to 120,000, in conducting the registration exercise.

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