Lai Mohammed calls for cancellation of APC registration in Kwara

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has demanded the immediate cancellation of the ongoing APC membership registration exercise in Kwara for non-compliance with party regulations and guidelines.

The minister made the request in his hometown of Oro, near Ilorin, after participating in the party’s national registration and revalidation exercise in his PU006 Oro Ward 2.

Speaking at a press briefing, Mohammed demanded the establishment of a process to ensure the conduct of a credible and fair exercise that would enjoy the support and trust of all.

He called for the immediate dissolution of the Senator John Danboyi-led Membership Registration Committee for Kwara State on the grounds that a large majority of APC stakeholders in the state had lost confidence in the committee .

The minister called for the constitution of a new committee that is truly independent, uncompromising and sensitive to the various delicate interests of the party.

He said a thorough investigation should be launched into the botched membership registration exercise by the Danboyi-led committee.

Mohammed stressed that these demands constituted the minimum irreducible demands for peace and progress in the state section of the party.

Justifying his demands, the minister said teams had been deployed ahead of the exercise to monitor the process and ensure compliance with the guidelines stipulated by the party.

He said reports from monitoring teams revealed that the entire exercise which began on February 9 was not in compliance with the stipulated guidelines.

“The guidelines state that Abuja registration officials must consult all stakeholders.

“After the failed attempt to organize a stakeholders meeting due to orchestrated violence, the registration officials failed to consult all stakeholders before the start of the membership registration exercise,

“They instead chose to work with only one of the four tendencies here in Kwara, the Fagbemi Group, to which the governor belongs.

“They excluded the other three trends – 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 even have a single local government chairperson,” 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 civil servants for the registration exercise had been a one-sided affair.

The minister said contrary to the party’s directives, the Abuja registration officials, upon arriving in Ilorin, handed over the registration documents to a person not recognized by the provisions of the directives.

He added that those who received the materials also decided to store them instead of distributing them to services.

“This implies that registration is carried out without the register of party members, while temporary membership slips, which must be signed and detached from the forms after registration, are not given to those who self- saying registered.

“According to our findings, since the start of registration, more than 80 percent of registration units have neither a register of members nor a registration form.

“In the few places where they are available, they are housed in the private apartments of certain political leaders,” he explained.

To support his claim, the minister said that in Baruten local government, the registration documents were handed over to the Speaker of the National Assembly, who hails from the area.

He said in Oyun, the documents were handed over to one Olayiwola Ojo, a member of the National Assembly, while in Shao, Kwara North senatorial district, the registration documents were taken to a police station.

The minister said the station’s DPO was presiding over the registration of members, in violation of party guidelines.

“It was only when people mobilized against the use of the police station for recording that the illegality ended.

“What happened in Shao is the clearest indication yet that the police and other security agencies may be complicit in the disorder caused by the registration of members in Kwara State,” he said. he declared.

Mohammed explained that instead of membership registers, complicit registration officials used exercise books or sheets of paper to register members.

He said top officials of the Kwara government and members of the State Assembly were forced to write down their details in notebooks or sheets of paper, in clear violation of the guidelines.

“We have pictorial and video evidence of this.

“What is even more worrying is that members who have supposedly registered are being asked to return for their registration forms.

“To date, none of these members have received the registration form.

“Even senior officials of the state government, including special advisors as well as members of the Assembly, had to register using notebooks or sheets of paper,” he said .

The minister said that due to the shoddy and non-compliant mode of registration using exercise books and sheets of paper instead of the membership register, many members were not willing to submit their personal details by such an unsecured and illegal process.

According to Mohammed, there is a deliberate policy of exclusion on the part of the Abuja recording team and its collaborators.

“It appears that there is a plan to deregister even high-ranking members and stakeholders who have not only paid their dues to 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 Transportation, which is PU 005 at Ode-Opobiyi in Ajikobi area of ​​Ilorin West LGA, not a single registration officer recording has not been seen at the designated point since. the start of the exercise, not to mention the registration materials.

“This is the situation in all other places considered to be the stronghold of high-ranking party members,” he said.

The minister said in Irepodun, his local government, registration officials only showed up once, making it impossible for many members to register.

He said even though the registration exercise was supposed to last two weeks, registration officers only showed up once at many registration units.

The minister said the seven-member APC Membership Registration Committee, led by Danboyi, appeared to have gone underground since its arrival in Kwara from Abuja.

“They have had no meaningful interaction with legitimate members of the state executive as well as party leaders and other stakeholders, including local government chairmen and their leaders and chairmen of constituency and their leaders.

“These are legally constituted party leaders who, according to the registration guidelines, must not only be consulted but accompanied during the exercise,” he said.

The minister said the results indicated a clear and deliberate policy to massively disenfranchise and deregister APC members in Kwara, leading to disillusionment among many members.