Membership Drive: Lagos APC set to distribute 1.7million cards

By Lanre Adesanya

In preparation for the Lagos State All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries,the party envisaged distributing 1.7million membership cards across the 20 Local governments and 245 wards of the state.

This was disclosed by the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Abiodun Salami, at the state party secretariat at Acme, Ikeja, Lagos.

Meanwhile, the party held meeting with various LGA party leaders on how they would work in collaboration with the LGA party Chairmen and Council Chairmen in their various local governments.

At the meeting, the State Chairman of the party, Alhaji Babatunde Balogun, stated that the leaders were carefully chosen based on their pedigree, saying that the party believes they would act responsibly during the exercise.

Balogun said, “You are carefully selected because we believe in your pedigree as leaders in your respective local governments. You must behave responsibly while distributing the cards to party members.

The party chairman stated that the uncollected cards must be returned to the party state secretariat immediately after the exercise, saying that the distribution exercise would end before the governorship primary on Sunday.

He added ” Call emergency meeting with your LGA party Chairman and Council Chairman so that both of you can fashion out ways to distribute the cards to the members”

Balogun stressed that the party has up to date membership register for the exercise, saying that it is through the membership card that members would be able to vote in the primaries.

“In the membership register, the pictures and names of the owners of the cards are on the register. Any uncollected membership cards should be returned to the state party secretariat. The cards will be distributed across the 245 wards before the governorship primaries”

While responding to questions from the leaders, Balogun stated “It is not necessary to collect the temporary cards from the members before handing over the permanent cards to them”

Also, the Secretary of the party in Lagos, Dr. Wale Ahmed, said “In the local governments where there are LCDAS, for instance, Alimosho LGA which was split into 6 local governments and LCDAs, 3 leaders would be chosen from each of the 6 local governments and LCDAs. That means they would have 18 Leaders plus the Leader representing Alimosho
local government at the state level. Which means they will be 19 in total? The same thing will be applicable to other local governments too”

Also, the House of Assembly aspirants in Lagos were screened at the party secretariat. It was learnt that the incumbent Lawmakers at the Lagos State House of Assembly who were re-contesting were first screened before other aspirants.

As at the time of filing this report, the screening is ongoing as many of the aspirants were arriving for the screening exercise. It would be recalled that over 230 aspirants obtained the House of Assembly form to contest under the APC in the 40 Constituencies of the State.