The ongoing membership registration and revalidation exercise of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has reportedly turned into a ‘black market’ in Ogun State with few forms will be made available to loyalists of the faction in charge of the exercise, Njenje Media News reports.
According to a DAILY POST report, the ongoing membership registration and revalidation exercise was seen by a faction as an opportunity to send others out of the party.
Investigation by DAILYPOST correspondent revealed that while the exercise commenced on Tuesday, many polling units and wards are yet to set their eyes on the registration forms as of Friday.
It was also gathered that some leaders took the forms into their rooms in order to register party members in their group. One of such was discovered somewhere in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government.
For this reason, a renowned member of the party from Yewa North, Hon. Sogo Akinde described the whole registration as a black market.
Asked why he called the exercise a black market, Akinde said, “They don’t display black market for buyers to see, you look for where they hide it.”
Some party members from Ipokia Local Government told our correspondent on Friday that, “We have been visiting our pulling units since Tuesday, nobody is there for the APC registration exercise.”
In his comment about the situation, the Chairman of the registration committee in Ogun State, Ademorin Kuye, confirmed seeing video of people being refused registration, but said nobody will be excluded.
“I have told the Secretary to summon a meeting of all supervisors and registration officers for Saturday, and we are going to talk to ourselves again.
“The instruction from the national secretariat is that all, excluding none, must be registered.
“We have sufficient forms. The forms that have been brought to this state, is more than the registered number of voters that will vote during the election. So there’s no need to rush,” Kite said in Abeokuta.
However, reports from different local government areas are contrary to the claim that there are sufficient forms.
In some polling units, it was alleged that forms are being hoarded for unknown reasons, while the registration of members is also being delayed.
A former Councillor in Ipokia Local Government, Hon. Elijah Ogunleye, said that many polling units visited between Wednesday and Thursday were without registration officers.
Ogunleye emphasised that in the units where the exercise was taking place, officers were seen with few forms, leaving many party faithfuls unregistered and disappointed.
It was learnt that it is the same scenario in the three senatorial districts in the state as members now report one another to the police over the APC membership registration.
In Abeokuta South, seven party leaders were said to have been summoned by the police over a petition filed by another faction of the APC in the local government about the ongoing exercise.
The summoned party leaders, it was gathered, are: Chief Sunday Showunmi, Hon Femi Allen-Taylor, Hon Wasiu Sodipo, Hon Akeem Odejimi, Mr Aremu Omidiji, Mr Lekan Soetan and Sunday Omidiji.
They were said to have earlier on Thursday reported at the Police station at Oke-Itoku, before they were taken to the Area Command at Oke-Ilewo, and thereafter transported to the police headquarters Eleweran, Abeokuta for further interrogation.
A DAILY POST report.
