By Chuks Okocha
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday stated that the outburst of the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, dismissing the much hyped All Progressives Congress (APC) membership registration exercise and calling for its cancellation have further confirmed that the exercise is a huge scam.
The PDP further stated that Mohammed’s revelation that over 80 percent of the registration units in his state, Kwara, do not have membership register or membership registration slips further confirmed revelations that the registration and revalidation are nothing but a fictitious name and figure writing exercise.
The party in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, noted that the lamentation of Mohammed in revealing that the fraudulent exercise is being carried out without the party membership register or temporary slips given to those who purportedly registered, “has also confirmed to the world that the figures being compiled and bandied by the APC are mere fabrications.”
Moreover, he said the revelation in the minister’s outburst that the APC has been torn into shreds with warring factions going for one another’s throat showed that the party has collapsed and would totally fizzle before the 2023 elections.
Ologbondiyan said: “It is puzzling that Lai Mohammed is now crying about the manipulations, intimidations and use of security forces by APC leaders to rig an ordinary membership registration exercise, whereas that has been the stock in trade of the party since its emergence.
“It is on record that all the elections in which APC had participated, there had always been illegal deployment of security forces, manhandling of voters, vote buying as well as manipulation of figures, and Mohammed had always praised APC for being ‘victorious’ in such electoral parodies.”
The PDP spokesman also noted that it was not surprising that the APC’s registration and revalidation exercise has collapsed across the country to the extent that in Taraba State, compatriots are being lured with N10, 000 per registration; in Kano State, Nigerians are being threatened for refusing to participate; in Kogi State, the APC is faced with the rejection of offer of all sorts of bribe; in Kwara State, the people are being beaten and locked up in police station over their rejection of the APC while in President Muhammadu Buhari’s home, Katsina State, the exercise was a huge flop.
From the evidence provided by Mohammed, the PDP said: “ It is manifestly clear that APC’s plot to beguile Nigerians with a fraudulent membership registration exercise has failed as their attempt to come out with a padded fictitious figure has been exposed.”
According to the PDP, “Our party has nothing but pity for the APC in its exposed plot. The PDP charges Nigerians to remain resolute in their rejection of the APC, a deceptive, fraudulent and overtly corrupt party that has brought so much pain and anguish to our dear country.”
