The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the All Progressives Congress (APC) membership registration, describing the extension of the exercise as a ‘flopped membership drive.’

The statement issued on Monday by PDP’s spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan was titled: “Extension won’t help your flopped membership drive, PDP mocks APC.

The ruling party on Sunday announced that the registration and revalidation exercise, initially billed to end on February 23 has now been extended by three weeks till March 31.

In the statement, the PDP said the three weeks extension will not change the “public rejection that greeted the exercise and the APC as a party.”

The PDP boasted: “Our party is already aware of the confusion in the APC after genuine report from the field indicated a huge reduction in APC membership profile, given that more than half of its members across the federation refused to revalidate their membership while most regular Nigerians who they approached, responded with vehement apathy.”

The membership drive of the APC has faced hitches since it commenced. Pioneer chairman of the party Bisi Akande, immediate past chairman Adams Oshiomhole and other leaders of the party criticised the move, describing it as wasteful. 

They questioned the rationale for revalidation of members who are still standing with the party.

Rubbing in the issue, the PDP said, “the public now know why the APC desperately sidestepped its original membership register, in the fraudulent exercise, as revealed by the recent outburst of the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed.”

The Kwara State chapter of the APC has also been parted asunder, over contestation for the control of the membership registration process by warring factions.

Tensions heightened after the state party chairman, Bashir Bolarinwa, supported by Lai Mohammed was ousted from his position and replaced by his deputy, Abdulahi Samari believed to be loyal to governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq. The development degenerated into fisticuffs between rival groups which got 10 people injured during a stakeholders meeting in Ilorin.

The Nation also reported that in Rivers State, party chieftains could not agree on the modalities for the registration exercise as one of the factions was not in agreement with the process while there are also reports of a court order halting the exercise in the state. The case in Imo is much the same. 

The PDP however commended Nigerians for not allowing “the APC, the party that has brought so much devastation, pain and anguish and which has nothing to offer for the future of our nation, to beguile and trap them again with a fraudulent membership drive.”