APC caretaker chairman, Buni and Bisi Akande trade words over ongoing membership registration

Former Interim National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Bisi Akande and the Chairman Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the ruling party, Governor Mai Mala Buni have traded words over the ongoing membership registration of the party across the country.

Akande, a former Interim National Chairman of the APC and former governor of Osun state had while receiving members of the ruling party’s Registration and Revalidation Committee in Osun State in Ila-Oragun on Wednesday argued that the exercise contradicted the rule of periodic census.

The Chairman Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC) of the ruling party, Governor Mai Mala Buni on Thursday faulted Chief Bisi Akande’s description of the ruling party’s ongoing registration as an aberration.

According to the Caretaker chairman who also doubles as the governor of Yobe State, the exercise which “is part of the strategic measures taken by the committee to give existing and new members a sense of belonging” is within the ambit of the law.

”The membership registration and revalidation is a constitutional provision,” he said, recalling that the APC last engaged in such an exercise more than six years ago.

In a statement released by Mallam Mamman Mohammed, the director-general, Press and Media Affairs, Buni said: “Since the initial exercise in 2014, the party has not registered new members nor updated the personal information of our existing members as provided for by the constitution.”

He explained that the membership registration and revalidation formed a “part of the strategic measures taken by the committee to give existing and new members a sense of belonging.”

The committee chairman added that the registration gives existing members the chance to update their information and provides the party the opportunity to expunge the names of those who left from its register.

Governor Buni also said the registration and revalidation would help the APC to generate a valid, accurate, and up-to-date data of its members.

He assured that the CECPC was committed to reconciling aggrieved members, uniting the party and ensuring the success of the registration and revalidation of its members.

According to Buni, APC has through his committee succeeded in building confidence among its members by reassuring them of new hope.

He added: “Our focus is to strengthen the party through a bottom-up approach and to carry everyone on board, while those aggrieved have happily rejoined APC just as new ones have joined the party.

“The caretaker committee has reconciled many aggrieved members and factions across the country, including the Zamfara State factions among others. It has also brought in prominent politicians into APC, including David Umahi, the serving governor of Ebonyi State with more coming.”