APC targets 12 million members in 5 days

The All Progressives Congress has said it hopes to register at least 12 million members during its nationwide membership registration, which will commence on January 28.


In a telephone interview with newsmen, the Interim National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Lai Mohammed, said the membership registration would last for about five days and would be held at over 120, 000 polling units across the country.

He said, “The membership registration starts on January 28 and it will run for about five days. It will be happening simultaneously across the nation and will be done at the level of the polling units. You know the maximum number of votes at a polling unit is 500. But the people that vote are not all party members. Therefore, if a political party registers up to 100 or 200 people at a polling unit; it is remarkable. There are over 120, 000 polling units in the country. From what we have, we expect to register at least 12 million members.”

Mohammed said the party decided to do the registration at the polling units to reduce cost of transportation and other logistics.

He added that the party had made provisions for all the materials needed for the registration at the polling units.

APC had set up committees to handle the registration of its members in each state of the federation.

Members of the committee were drawn from the national secretariat, the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, the Congress for Progressive Change and the All Nigeria Peoples Party in each state as well as the governors, who are members of the party.


It was also gathered that the caretaker committees would be inaugurated two weeks before the commencement of the registration.

After it was registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission, last year, APC had commenced a membership drive across the country, which resulted, partly, in the defection of some members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party to it.

The membership registration is expected to put figures to the strength of the new party in the six geopolitical zones of the country.