The All Progressives Congress has said its nationwide membership registration/revalidation will commence as soon as it takes delivery of all of the necessary registration materials.
This was disclosed by the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Yekini Nabena, in a telephone interview with The PUNCH, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
He explained that the party was desirous of holding the exercise simultaneously across the 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory.
Nabena said, “We will begin the registration exercise as soon as we receive all the materials from the printers.
“I believe this will happen very, very soon. Recall, the Chairman of the Caretaker/ Extra-Ordinary National Convention Planning Committee of our great party, Governor Mai Mala Buni, recently received the first batch of the materials, here at the party National Secretariat.
“What is left is to receive the remaining materials then we set up the various committees to handle the exercise across the country. Arrangements have reached an advanced stage; I can assure you.”
He further stated that the party was preparing to receive more defectors from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, noting that the APC had enough room to accommodate as many Nigerians as are willing to join the progressive train.
It was gathered that the party leadership was considering sending party leaders to states other than their states of origin in order to ensure transparency in the registration exercise.
A top-ranking party member who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media said, “What we are simply trying to achieve is to entrench a culture of fairness and transparency.
“We want to eliminate or at least reduce the chances of any individual or tendency within the party to hijack the process, we want independent minded party members to go to states other than their to conduct the exercise so that every party member will be treated fairly and given a sense of belonging.
“This will also ensure that the former practice where some party leaders will hoard membership cards and give only to their loyalists. Those we will send to the various states will ensure that all deserving party members are captured,” he said.
(PUNCH)