Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, has protested the registration and revalidation of All Progressives Congress (APC) members in Kwara State.
He said the membership registration exercise in Kwara was faulty for non-compliance with the party’s regulations and guidelines.
He then demands that the party’s national caretaker committee should cancel the Kwara State membership registration.
According to Lai Mohammed, the vast majority of the APC stakeholders in the state had lost confidence in the John Danboyi committee handling the registration in Kwara State.
The minister urged for the constitution of a fresh committee that is genuinely independent, non-compromised and sensitive to the delicate diverse interests in the party
He said a thorough investigation should be launched into the botched membership registration exercise by the Danboyi-led committee.
Mohammed noted that the demands were the irreducible minimum requirements for peace and progress in the state chapter of the party.
Justifying his demands, the minister said teams had been deployed ahead of the exercise to monitor the process to ensure compliance with the guidelines stipulated by the party.
He said the reports from the monitoring teams revealed that the whole exercise which started on Feb. 9 did not comply with the stipulated guidelines.
“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.
“They opted instead to work with only one of the four tendencies here in Kwara, the Fagbemi Group, to which the governor belongs.
“They excluded the three other tendencies – The Akogun Group, the Gbemi Saraki Group and the Lai Mohammed Group, without which the ‘O To Ge’ 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,” he said.
He said the Fagbemi group had only four members at the State Executive Council level.
The minister also said that the recruitment of officials for the registration exercise had been a one-sided affair.
The minister said contrary to the party’s guidelines, the registration officials from Abuja on getting to Ilorin had handed over the registration materials to an individual not recognised by the provisions of the guidelines.
He said those who were given the materials also decided to hoard them instead of distributing them to the wards
“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.
“According to our findings, since the commencement of the registration, over 80 per cent of the registration units do not have either membership register or membership registration slip.
“In the few places where they are available, they are kept in private apartments of some political office holders,” he said.
