BY AYO ESAN
FORMER National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, John Odigie- Oyegun has reiterated that the controversy trailing the ongoing membership registration/revalidation exercise of the party is unnecessary.
He said there were more important issues facing Nigeria at the moment that must be addressed, noting that it was a surprise that stakeholders and the media were dissipating so much energy on what he called a routine exercise.
Odigie-Oyegun, who spoke exclusively with THE POINT on Saturday, said, “I don’t know why people are talking so much about the membership registration/revalidation exercise of our party. This is a routine exercise, why the noise on that?
“If Akande says it is wasting of time and resources, tell him I said it is not. It is a normal and routine exercise in a political party. If Oshiomhole said the revalidation exercise was not necessary and not in tune with our constitution, tell him I said it is.”
Recall that the pioneer National Chairman of the APC, Bisi Akande, had described the registration and revalidation exercise as wasteful and unnecessary, saying even the census was conducted every 10 years and that the party did the last exercise less than 10 years ago.
Also, after the revalidation of his membership in Lagos, National Leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, said he supported Akande’s comment on the exercise, a view that was also shared by the immediate past National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole.
Oshiomhole had said the ongoing revalidation of the party’s membership was not in tune with its Constitution.
However, while speaking with our correspondent, Odigie-Oyegun said the controversy trailing the exercise was needless.
He said, “We have serious security challenges in almost all parts of the country. See what is happening especially in the South West, that should demand our attention. People are being killed everyday and the leaders are not speaking out on that.
“That is what we should be discussing. Registration of members and revalidation of old membership should not bother us to that extent. We can be talking about how to restructure our country in order to solve our problems. That should be our focus.”
