The Forum of the All Progressives Congress (APC) State Chairmen has called on the leadership of the party to extend the ongoing nationwide membership revalidation and registration exercise.
They made the call at a news conference on Thursday following a closed-door meeting in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
The chairman of the forum, Ali Buka-Dalori, explained that the extension of the exercise was necessary to give room for more persons to join the APC.
He stated that the turnout of Nigerians and mass increase in the party’s strength in the last few months were indications that more Nigerians were willing to join the party.
“We, the state chairmen of APC appeal to the leadership of the party and the CECPC, in the interest of the party and all intending members of the party across the country, to consider and effect a further extension of the exercise.
“We are therefore recommending an extension of the exercise to enable us bring into the fold all willing citizens in our various states,” he said.
Buka-Dalori, who is the APC Chairman in Borno, decried the logistics bottleneck and complexity of the distribution process of registration materials.
He lamented that this led to the situation where a number of states only received the materials to commence the second phase of the registration exercise not too long ago and were unable to meet up with the reviewed timetable of the exercise.
The forum chairman thanked the leadership of the party for its decision to organise the exercise, describing it a welcome development.
He said, “Immediately after the commencement of the exercise, we all saw the need for an extension to accommodate the second stage of the exercise in view of the mass turnout of Nigerians to associate with the party that was not duly prepared for.
“Having reviewed the development and making arrangement for requisite materials to accommodate all into the fold of the party, hence, the need for further extension has logically arise.”
