TheCable

The Former Elected Local Government Chairmen Association (FELGOCAS) has faulted the decision of the caretaker committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to commence fresh registration of party members.

Mai Mala Buni, chairman of the caretaker committee of the APC, while speaking with state house correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday, had disclosed the party’s plan to commence membership registration.

According to Buni, “membership registration across over 119,000 polling units in the country” will be “part of our mandate as bestowed on us by national executive committee to rebuild this party bottom up”.

But Ibrahim Haske, national president of FELGOCAS, in a statement after a press conference of the association in Sokoto on Tuesday, alleged that the decision to commence fresh registration is an opportunity for the caretaker committee to extend its tenure in office.

According to the group, the actions of the Buni-led committee have deviated from its given mandate.

“When on June 25, 2020, an interim caretaker committee was put in a place by the national executive committee (NEC) of our party to, among others, reconcile aggrieved party members and organise a national convention to bring up new leadership to steer the ship of the party within six months, most of us grudgingly accepted the strange arrangement as a result of our profound respect for our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari,” the statement read.

“The interim committee led by Yobe state governor, Mai Mala Buni, assumed office and to our amazement, began to play the script of the “so-called cabal” in the party. Instead of uniting the various entities in the party, the committee is doing the opposite. The Edo state crisis is a case in point. The interim caretaker committee inexplicably became a lameduck unable to forster unity within the party.

“Indeed, instead of supporting the candidate of the party in the governorship election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the committee allegedly gave full support to the opposition PDP candidate leading to the the disastrous outing of the party in the governorship election. We stand corrected!

“As if that was not enough, the committee has gone ahead with a sit-tight agenda to extend its tenure beyond December 2020 under the pretext of carrying out fresh registration of members and inability to conclude its reconciliation efforts!

“The committee has less than a month to go yet it is planning for fresh registration of members, abandoning the original mandate of the committee which is to organise a national convention.

“Our advise to the caretaker committee is to drop the idea of the registration with immediate effect.”

According to FELGOCAS, instead of registration of new members, the party should focus on updating its records and look into organising a national convention as soon as possible.

Haske urged the committee to announce a new timetable and date for the national convention, and also jettison its plan to dissolve all existing party executive structures.