Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State,
yesterday formally registered as a member of the All Progressive Congress
saying the party is leading by example by taking democracy to the grassroots.
Oshiomhole, who was a member of the defunct
Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) before the merger of parties which gave birth
to the APC, registered at Iyamho Primary School in Etsako West Local Government
Area and was given a membership card with number 10018645.
The governor, who urged people in the state
to troop out and join the party, said the registration process was free, fair
and transparent. According to him, “the issue of membership of the party is
open; it is transparent. The location is exactly as you would find in INEC
rules. Every polling unit is the unit for registration. That means whether you
are a governor, a party chairman, or a leader, you have to go to your polling
unit to register as a member of APC.
“The process has been decentralised and very
transparent. So it is not a matter of favour as you can see. Even as governor
of this state, I had to leave Benin City to come to my village where I am a
registered voter to come and register.
“I think this is extremely important. If you
look at the turnout of voters across the state and the country, you see the
excitement on the faces of the people, which shows that APC has laid a solid
democratic foundation on which we can build,” he said.
On the issue of presenting the INEC voter’s
card for registration, the Governor said: “It is to ensure that people register
where they are expected to vote. The tendency is for people of little minds to
try to acquire many cards in order to use them on election day.
The Governor declared: “You know that when it
comes to ward congresses, people who are not even members of the party are
given emergency party membership to use them to distort the primary election.
“By insisting that you have your voter’s
card, you cannot move from one location to another. It is an attempt to copy
INEC and decentralise the process and avoid double registration.”
On the possibility of extending the
registration exercise, Oshiomhole said: “There is no need to talk about
extension because there is no evidence of people who want to vote and are
prevented. Given the enthusiasm of people who want to register, there might be
some polling booths where people are much more than the number of cards
available.
“The national secretariat of the APC has give
assurance that whatever number of cards required would be provided. So in any
event, this is just to kickstart the process that would be continuing everyday
because more and more people are likely to join the party.”
Oshiomhole further declared: “The APC
registration has shown that we are taking democracy to rural communities and
encourage them to become politically conscious, and with that level of
consciousness, they will hopefully one day use their numbers to compel people
who wield political power not to forget the rural majority.
“Other parties should borrow a leaf from what
the APC has done in this exercise. I am proud of it,” he said.
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Politics