APC accuses PDP of sabotaging its on-going membership registration exercise

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Peoples Democratic Party of sabotaging its on-going membership registration exercise in Abia, Delta, Gombe and Rivers States.

This is just as the party has announced plans to extend its nationwide membership registration by two days to accommodate the millions of Nigerians who have turned out to register, but have not done so.

In a statement issued Sunday by its interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the registration would now end on Wednesday, February 12, instead of today.

PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metu, had at the weekend accused the APC of laying claims to a non-existent membership population, describing the targeted 28 million membership by the opposition party as phantom.

However, APC, in the press statement, said it was also not unaware of the efforts by the PDP to sabotage the registration process in Abia, Delta, Gombe and Rivers, among other states, hence the need to ensure that the people of the affected states are not disenfranchised.

The party urged all interested citizens who were yet to register to utilise the opportunity offered by the extension to do so.

“While we are aware that the good people of Nigeria have accepted our party, the APC, as the agent of the much-needed change that our country desperately needs at this time, we have apparently underestimated the number of those who are eager and willing to participate actively in the change process by joining the APC.

“Even with one day to go in the original registration schedule, we have exceeded the number of members we set out to register, and many more have reached out to us to give them the opportunity to join the APC train of change, hence our decision to extend the registration,” it said.

Also, in another reaction, a member of APC in the National Assembly from Ekiti State, Senator Olubunmi Adetumbi, has refuted the statement by PDP that his party was plotting to rig the 2015 elections through the ongoing membership registration exercise.

Adetumbi, who represents Ekiti North Senatorial District, made the clarification at his country home in Ifaki Ekiti Area of Ekiti State after registering at his unit in the ongoing membership drive of the party.

According to him, the conduct of the exercise in all the Independent National Electoral Commission's (INEC) designated units, “is in consonance with our party's constitutional structures”.

The lawmaker, who noted that the exercise had recorded a huge success since its commencement, urged those who have not participated to seize the opportunity of the few days left to do so.