Aspirants Hijack APC Registration ….photographers make huge sales

By Edith Igbokwe, Damilola Kushimo and Motolani AbdulGafar

The on-going registration and revalidation of members has triggered competition to recruit loyalists and would-be voters  among aspirants eyeing various positions within the ruling All Progressives Congress and the government.

This is happening as photographers make profit running into  millions of naira by snapping hundreds of applicants for membership looking for passport photographs.

In Oshodi with 261 polling units, two booklets of 100 forms have been fully completed indicating that total registered as at Friday was 52,500 members.

The councillors hoping to consolidate their positions against competitors took over the snapping of photographers with a mouth watering deal of N150 per person.

This means that collectively, the councillors and other stakeholders have spent no less than N7,875,000 so far.

In Ejigbo, the party struck a deal with 10 photographers at N15,000 per week at 10 designated snapping points for four weeks for their labour.The party stakeholders also funded lamination and printing materials to enable the photographers print pictures for members.

While payment for the photographers cost N600,000, the cost of printing materials and gadgets cost over N500,000. To ease printing, two generators were set up to ensure uninterrupted electricity. A source told Echonews that over 2 million naira were raised by party stakeholders in the first four weeks.

This arrangement made it easy to achieve over 30,000 registered members with not less than three booklets of 100 forms completed at the 75 polling units.

Other stakeholders gave stipends to registration officials and invested in public awareness campaigns.

In Isolo LCDA, the completion of the first set of booklets in the 174 polling units was hitch-free enabling the party to register 17,400 members in the first two weeks.

However, by the time the second set of booklets was shared to the  units, the zeal began to decline as registration officials complained of inadequate stipends.

Not more than N5,500  has been received by each official so far and much of it came from party stakeholders and aspirants seeking to watch their back.

The dearth of funds has affected the production of passport photographs as stakeholders seem challenged by the high cost of paying for the passport of party members.

Still, Isolo LCDA party chairman Barrister Gani Bello believes the party will complete the second set of booklets and achieve over 35,000 target.

A key requirement of the registration is that applicants must

This posed a challenge to the registration officials as many people didn’t have the required photographs.

The challenge was eased as aspirants took it up to fund their members to get the passport photographs, using it as a campaign strategy to win more loyalists.

The registration officials had earlier complained that many people did not have two passport photographs and that the situation was slowing down the exercise.

Political aspirants who leveraged on the opportunity by providing the passport photographs to register their loyalists who they think would support them to win the party’s ticket during its primaries include those eyeing party and public offices.

Each aspirant hires photographers to take passport photographs for their followers at the rate of N150 per person to get them registered.

There are 510 registration centres in Oshodi-Isolo, Oshodi has 261 centres, Isolo has 174 while Ejigbo has 75 centres.

During the first phase of the registration exercise, each centre was given a booklet of 100 form which were exhausted in all the 75 centre in Ejigbo within the first three days of the exercise.

In Oshodi and Isolo, ECHONEWS gathered that more than 89 per cent on the centres exhausted their forms within the first two weeks of the exercise.

The registration and update of the party membership began on Tuesday, February 9, 2021 across the 36 states of the federation and was scheduled to last for two weeks.

Thereafter, the exercise was extended by three weeks nationwide following the report that the feedback across the states had been overwhelming and beyond projected success lwith a massive turnout of intending registrants beyond the expectation of the party.

Since the second phase of the exercise commenced, more members have been registering with the party.

The party’s LCDA chairman, Alh. Fatai Kasumu disclosed that although the exercise was fantastic in the council area as people were ready to be registered, the exercise has been put on hold due to lack of some logistics to carry on.

“Presently the registration is on hold because we have finished the forms given to us for the first phase of the registration but I must acknowledge that it is quite impressing as we exhausted the forms within three days of commencement which shows how much our members are turning up for the registration exercise.

“We shall commence the second phase of the exercise as soon as we provide all what are needed for the smooth registration.”

He therefore encouraged registered members to bring in new members in order to uphold the glory of the highest number of party members in the registration exercise.

He also advised that members should ensure total participation in the coming elections.

There has equally been an increase in the sponsorship of members by the aspirants in term of passport production and logistics in some wards to gain more followers in the party using this as campaign strategy for the forthcoming local government elections.

Politicians ensured that people come out in multitude to get  registered to acquire the credit of a task well done in their polling unit.

However, the registration officials have complained about the challenges they face in carrying out their duty which include lack of payment and how to get people registered without two passport photographs.

The officials who spoke to ECHONEWS complained that they were not getting financial support from the politicians despite working hard to get people registered, saying many of them are getting demoralised.

The councillor representing Shoungle ward, Hon. Wasiu Mustapha and his counterpart in Ewu ward in Oshodi-Isolo LGA, Hon. Seyi Jaiyesimi disclosed to ECHONEWS that they pay N150 for two passport photographs for each person’s registration in all the units within their wards.

The analysis show that a photographer makes N15, 000 from a booklet consisting of 100 forms and if he does 10 booklets, he will be realising N150,000 from the registration exercise.

Jaiyesimi revealed how all politicians especially the aspirants are running a rat race so as to complete the task of (APC) registration ahead of the party’s congress and primaries so that their loyalists will get themselves registered and or re-validated as members of the party.

“We have taken the registration exercise personally, we believe it will speak in favour of us. Some of us have been able to complete our booklets within three days of commencement and we direct people to the centers that are yet to finish their booklets.”

Confirming the excitement among photographers, Mr. Ahmed Akanbi who co-ordinated them in Ejigbo thanked the APC for the opportunity.

His words: “Photographers are very happy. We love APC. This is a bonanza and we are happy that our support for APC has not been in vain.

On the financial challenge, the Deputy Chairman of APC in Oshodi and one if the chairmanship aspirants,  Hon. Saheed Animashaun, assured that  the exercise is still ongoing, appealing to people to come out for the registration.