Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State have expressed fears over the exercise that will produce the most popular, credible and acceptable aspirant of the party for the November 2024 governorship election in the State.
This is as just most of the party members expressed worry over the register to be used for the conduct of the primary of the party, accusing the leadership in the state of plotting to tinker with the party registers.
Some members noted that the state party secretariat has been keeping mute over the actual number of members of the party that can participate in the shadow election.
They demanded that the register should be made available two weeks before shadow election.
According to a member, “We have been kept in the dark about the party’s register. We want to know the fate of some members who joined us lately. We want to know if they will not be sidelined in the process or allowed them to vote.
“The process can only be fair if all party members are allowed to participate in the exercise and nobody excluded from the list.”
However, a member of the APC State Working Committee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, disclosed that the state party secretariat had forwarded the list of members to the national secretariat
He stated that the State Chairman, Ade Adetimehin, had directed every ward and local government chairmen to provide the names of the members to the party secretariat.
He added that the state secretariat had forwarded the names to the national secretariat, allaying the fears from some quarters that the list may be doctored or some names removed from the list.
He said: “The leadership of the party in the state is not plotting to tinker with the party registers. We are one family and we are not trying to remove or add any names to the register.
“The party sent the list to the national office and we know the implications that tampering with the party registers will trigger unnecessary crisis in APC in Ondo State.
“The party should be ready to accommodate even the worst of enemies to shore up its membership base.
“This is not a time to deregister anybody, It is premature to start raising this baseless allegation now, the membership of the political party is not based on being registered alone, there are cards issued to all members that can authenticate their eligibility to participate in any election, either or direct or indirect.
“So, we are not planning anything to undermine anyone of such and our plan is to register more members and not to reduce the number”
A member of the party also said: “On the number of party members registered are eligible to take part in voting, I could not ascertain right now as it’s kept at APC national headquarters server in Abuja, but only card carrying members in the 2023 will participate in the election.
Attempts to speak with the state party chairman were not successful but the publicity secretary, Alex Kalejaiye said: “no comment.”
ALSO READ: NICO urges movie makers to uphold cultural ethics in filmmaking
