Registration: Kwara APC Chairman drums support
Mr Bashir Bolarinwa, the Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara, has called on all members of the party to revalidate their membership and mobilise others to join the party.
Bolarinwa made the appeal in Ilorin at the party secretariat while addressing officials of the party from the 16 local government areas at a day workshop for the coming membership registration.
He explained that the reason for the workshop was to prepare them for the registration exercise commencing on Tuesday (Feb. 9) in all the polling units in the state.
“It is important that we should participate in the registration exercise to show our strength and numerical superiority that we are more than them.
“We need to use it to maintain the unity of the party as against the AA members,” Bolarinwa said.
The chairman told the delegates that the leadership of the party in the state decided to invite four persons per local government made up of the chairmen, secretaries, youth and women leaders in each local government.
“I am happy that all we expected from the 16 local governments are here for the workshop,” Bolarinwa said.
He commended the leaders and elders of the party for their commitment and love for the party who have left what they were doing to grace the workshop.
“This situation that we find ourselves is the beginning of another struggle to emancipate Kwara, by the grace of God, we are going to triumph,” he added.
The chairman said the registration exercise was very important to the party, especially the authentic APC group as only registered members would vote to elect delegates that would go to conventions to elect party executives from ward to the state levels.
“The only thing that we can use to show them that we are not out and we are not down is to see that we are strengthened with strong minds and we mobilise many party members as possible to get registered.
“I implore all our members to remain steadfast because God is always on the side of the righteous and He will be by our side because we stand by the truth,” he said.
According to the chairman, the strength of the party, particularly their group lie on its membership strength, hence the need to register and mobilise others to join the APC.
A chieftain of the party, Akogun Iyiola Oyedepo, one of the facilitators of the workshop, appealed to members of the party not to be discourage, urging them to “go home, mobilise people to register, but don’t be discourage”.
“Our leaders have said that we should not be frustrated by what is going on in the party.
“The decision of our leaders is that we should get registered and also bring people to register as APC members,” Oyedepo added.
He also appealed to members across the state not to be annoyed to the extent that they would not register or validate their membership.
“What you meet at the registration venue may not go down well with you, don’t be discourage, get registered.
“This is a battle that will last until we win, we fought to bring somebody to power, that person is now using the power against us, God will fight for us,” Oyedepo said.
He said getting registered as members was the only thing that can qualify them as members of APC.
Oyedepo implored the committees in each local government to ensure that they register at least 80 per cent of the cards in each polling unit for the authentic APC members.
The second resource person, Alhaji Tunde Mohammed, said the party would deploy five members to each registration centre to monitor the process, mobilise new prospects to the centre, mobilise old members and watch out for people that may want to commit fraud.
He also said there would be a Situation room in each local government with five members per local government while the state would have seven members.
The situation rooms, he said, would take complaints from the people in the field, review the reports and collate same at the end of the exercise.
