The All Progressives Congress in Rivers State said it is poised to enrol about six million new members as the ruling party begins e-registration.
The State APC Chairman, Chief Tony Okocha, stated this while speaking during the flag-off of the exercise and training of local council supervisors and ward agents held at the party secretariat in Port Harcourt on Monday.
While noting that the state was starting the exercise late, Okocha charged the supervisors to roll up their sleeves and ensure that the party exceeds all other states before the end of January, when the exercise ends.
He stated, “This registration is not the one where you stay in your house and send anyone, everything about you as data will be displayed. So there is nothing like you registered ghosts’ names or not.
”So it has started. Some states have done over 300,000 as we speak because they started much earlier, but we are sure that in no time, we will be leading the others who started before us because we know that people like you are the people who will take the centre stage.
“Rivers State has a population of over six million, so the earlier you start, the better.”
Okocha explained that the e-registration of members is to eliminate fake registration and other sharp practices from the registration process.
The APC Chairman said that, though the party registered over twelve million voters in 2023, it did not reflect during the elections, hence the adoption of e-registration to be sure that everybody on board are real human and party member.
He said, ”In 2023, APC was boasting of having registered more than 12 million voters or members and unfortunately, that number appeared very bogus because it did not reflect in the 2023 general elections and so the party became very apprehensive and not very sure anymore that we actually registered or have that number as members of our party.”
He further charged the supervisors and agents to be very strict in carrying out the exercise without discriminating against anyone wishing to be a member of the party.
”I say to you, please take this assignment as if it’s your personal assignment. Take it as seriously as that and ensure the areas within your precinct that you deliver them to, ensuring that everybody is on board.
”The instruction from the party is that you should not restrict anybody who comes to you, who wishes to be part of APC,” he emphasised.
Okocha used the occasion to reassure members that the party is still very strong in the state.
Also speaking, State Secretary of the party, Eric Nwibani, said the exercise is to ensure that Rivers State takes its rightful place in the comity of states in the country.
Nwibani further said the target is that at the end of the exercise, Rivers should be able to beat Kano State in numbers.
He stated, “What we are here to do is to ensure that Rivers State takes its rightful place in the community of states in Nigeria. After Lagos and Kano, in this exercise, we expect that if we cannot overtake Lagos, we should overtake Kano.
”What we expect is that we’d take the exercise very seriously. We have 319 registration areas (wards) and 6866 polling units in Rivers State. If we register even if 100 people per polling unit, we’d have exceeded even the six million.”
The State Coordinator of e-registration Hands-on Device Application Train-the-Trainer Exercise of the APC, Silva Sanwi, said the party is collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission to ensure that every data captured is authentic and to ensure a seamless registration process.
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