The Oyo State All Progressives Congress (APC) may be in for a fresh crisis as two of its twelve National Assembly members have been accused of planning to hijack the ongoing membership registration exercise.
Oyo APC currently has two senators and 10 House of Representatives’ members.
This development, it was learnt, cannot be disconnected from the bid by various interests to gain control of the party ahead of the 2023 elections.
SaharaReporters gathered that the party currently has four factional groups which include Lamists, SENACO, PDP Reform and Unity Forum.
The party, at his enlarged stakeholders’ meeting held at the new secretariat, Oke-Bola, Ibadan on Monday however banned the activities of all the factions and agreed to select two persons each from the 33 local government areas of the state to lead the registration exercise in their respective council areas.
Party sources however revealed that Senator Teslim Folarin and Senator Fatai Buhari, who are both ranking members in the National Assembly on Wednesday approached the national revalidation/registration membership committee sent to the state at a highbrow hotel in Jericho area of Ibadan for allocation forms, an action that is against the agreed modalities by stakeholders.
A chieftain of the party, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that the committee, when approached, told the two federal lawmakers that what they wanted could not be done.
“The committee chairman told them that the fresh registration was necessitated by the crises that engulfed the party, adding that it would be stupid of them to now cause another round of crises. They were told that they were for peace.
“Imagine the two lawmakers asking that the materials for the registration be given to them to keep in their respective constituency offices. Is that not absurd? I wonder what they want to achieve with that. Why can’t they allow everybody to register and go afterward to canvass support from people ahead of the congresses? I am not sure we have learnt our lessons,” the source added.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on Saturday flagged off the membership registration of the APC across the country.
The exercise however turned violent on Wednesday in Kwara State as members of two factions of the party clashed in Ilorin.
The violence happened at the Banquet Hall of Government House where a meeting was holding ahead of the registration exercise.
The party national registration and revalidation committee had called the meeting to ensure a smooth registration exercise amid the protracted crisis in the party in Kwara which worsened after the removal of Bashir Bolarinwa as the party chairman.
Bolarinwa was removed by the national caretaker committee of the party led by Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala Buni. He was replaced with Abdullahi Samari two weeks ago.
The development was a fallout of a rift between Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq and a group of party leaders led by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.
Although the national and North Central leaders of the party have intervened in the rift, no solution has been found.
This led to fears of the factions conducting parallel registration exercises in the state.
