Stephen Olufemi Oni, Ilorin
No fewer than 20,000 aggrieved members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara state have defected from the ruling party and teamed up to form a new political association described as the ‘Third Force’ in the political equation in the state.
The aggrieved APC members, who included senatorial chairmen, ward
chairmen, local government chairmen, women leaders, youth leaders, as well as APC party stalwarts across the 16 local government areas of the state, accused the state Governor and his loyalists in the party of alleged disenfranchisement in the recent membership registration and revalidation exercise.
Addressing journalists in Ilorin, the state capital, on behalf of the defectors, the former state APC senatorial chairman for Kwara Central, Mallam Abdulfatai Abdulrahman, said: “It is impossible to achieve the developmental goals we are aiming for KWARANS in the midst of the chaotic situation we found ourselves in Kwara APC”, adding that their new party, the Third Force, would be unveiled in due course.
The people, who tore their APC membership cards and burnt the party symbol of brooms, said that the plot to allegedly marginalise them was all about 2023 political permutations.
“As you are all aware, Kwara APC has been enmeshed in one crisis or the other almost immediately after the party’s primary, stretching into the campaign period and lingering up to date.
“The crisis has gotten to its peak with the recent concluded APC membership revalidation and registration exercise in the state that was flawed with deliberate policies and grand orchestration to deregister and disenfranchise selected members of the party.
“The success of a political party is anchored on its popularity, intra party membership cohesion, integrity and sincere commitment to the service of the masses. All these are glaringly diminishing in Kwara APC as it is now.
“A grand design that denied majority of party members the opportunity to register and revalidate their membership across the state is a 2023 permutation agenda. We can never cross our fingers and watch the game from the sideline.
“The deliberate inaction to address the lingering crisis in Kwara APC has become obvious to all discerning minds that the agenda to deregister and refusal to revalidate thousands of members across the state was a grand plot that has the backing of the National Caretaker Committee of the party.
“From the above highlighted points, We, representing the hundreds of thousands disenfranchised card-carrying members of the All Progressives Congress including state exco, local government party chairmen, local government women leaders , youth leaders, ward chairmen as well as APC party stalwarts across the 16 local government areas in the state hereby denounce APC and form a KWARA THIRD FORCE of like minds across party lines.
“WE, therefore, call on all well-meaning Kwarans to shun violence, unnecessary agitation and desperation to belong to a party that has abandoned the majority of its members.
“Instead, we call on all aggrieved members of APC to pick up the courage to say NO to tyranny and join us to reshape the political future of Kwara State”, he said.
End.
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