Oshiomhole Faults APC Membership Registration and Revalidation Exercise

The immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has reacted to the ongoing party membership revalidation exercise, an Interim Caretaker Committee initiative, describing it as a breach of the party’s constitution.

Oshiomhole disclosed this yesterday while interacting with journalists shortly after his membership revalidation exercise at Unit 1, Ward 10, Iyamho, Etsako West Local Government of Edo State.

According to him, “APC is governed by a constitution and not by man. The constitution only provides registration, and I registered as a member of the APC in 2014 under the Interim National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande.

“There is nothing in the APC constitution that says a member shall revalidate or renew his membership. Once you registered when you joined the party and have not decamped, you are a member. So revalidation is strange to our constitution.

“I have only done this because I want peace to reign, but in doing this, we have to be careful not to create constitutional breach,” he said.

However, the former chairman said he is aware that since 2015, so many people have left the party while some joined, and there is the need to review the register. He, therefore, maintained that the registration for members was not necessary.

“If you ask me as a foundation member, who has never decamped, to revalidate my membership, it is double registration because there is nothing like revalidation in our constitution.

“By asking me to revalidate my membership means I was not a member. So, I think the correct language should be either reviewing or updating because it makes sense to review voters register due to the new members that have joined or those that have exited,” Oshiomhole said.

Oshiomhole said from time to time, and the party updates its register, which allowed some governors to run elections after the update.

“So what this means now is that I have come here to do another registration, but I insist that my registration never expired within the provision of the APC constitution,” he said.

“For me, I think we should move on. I am happy I just did it, but I don’t need it because my membership has not expired, and it can only pass when I decamp.

“History didn’t just begin today. If we don’t have a valid register, how did we conducted the congress in 2015 in which 16 million registered APC members voted to nominate President Muhammadu Buhari before the general election?”

“I am a founding governor of APC, I am not a creation of APC. Some of those who are rowdy here and there came to join APC, but we formed the APC,” he said.