BY LINUS CHIBUIKE
THE Chairman, Caretaker/Extra-Ordinary Convention Planning Committee of the All Progressives Congress, Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State, has reacted to the description of the ongoing membership registration and revalidation of the ruling party as an aberration by an APC chieftain, Bisi Akande, saying the exercise is a constitutional provision.
He explained that the exercise was part of the strategic measures being taken by his committee to give existing and new members of the party a sense of belonging.
Buni, who spoke through his Director-General, Press and Media Affairs, Mamman Mohammed, in a statement on Thursday, recalled that the ruling party conducted the same exercise more than six years ago.
THE POINT had reported that Akande, a former Governor of Osun State, and pioneer Interim National Chairman of the APC, had described the Buni-led National Caretaker Committee as an abnormality.
Despite this position, he advised the committee to resist all temptations of what he termed “sit-tight syndromes”, noting also that the ongoing APC membership registration and revalidation exercise was an “indefensible aberration.”
Akande had said, “No population census is repeated within less than a decade and voters are not re-registered at every election.
“Within this context, I see the present APC membership registration, within less than a decade after the original register, as an indefensible aberration, leading to certain ugly perceptions.”
But Buni said it was in order for the party to register new members and update the personal information of existing members as provided for by the constitution.
He explained that the ongoing registration and revalidation exercise would help the APC to generate a valid, accurate and up-to-date data of its members.
“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,” he noted.
“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,” the Governor added.
