The All Progressives Congress (APC) has zoned the office of the President for 2023 election to the South, Blueprint can authoritatively report.
Chairman APC Registration and Revalidation Panel for Akwa Ibom state, Senator Abubakar Girei, announced this Sunday during the kick-off of the exercise in Uyo, the state capital.
He also said the decision enjoys the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari and the party.
Represented by Hon Sheriff Banki, the panel’s secretary, Girei called on the South-south wing of the party, particularly the youth and the women to mobilise themselves and register ahead of the 2023 election to get themselves set for takeover of power at various levels in the state and the federal.
He said: “In 2023, the presidency is coming back to the South. I am not saying this by myself, I have the authority of Mr. President, I have the authority of the national chairman of the party to tell you that the presidency is coming back to the South. So, with this, the ball is now in your court.
“I am sure that very soon all of these mushroom parties would also copy us and say their presidency would also come to the South. So, you can see, if you don’t come out en masse to register for APC, our candidate may still not win. So, come out and register and vote for APC in all the elections that are coming.
“We are particularly calling on the youths and women to come out en masse and own this party because we have almost done our own, we are on our way out and we want our sons and daughters to come and take over from us.”
The party chieftain commended the state chapter of the party for taking the revalidation exercise seriously by turning up for the exercise en masse.
Girei further said the exercise had witnessed skyrocketing registration in less than four days of its commencement across the country, and led to the exhaustion of registration documents.
The former lawmaker said before Wednesday, registration documents would be supplied to all units for people to continue their revalidation.
“You have already shown clearly by coming out en masse to register, the information that we have is that in less than four days, all the registration centres in all the units have almost all exhausted their registration documents.
“If you go to register and they tell you that the forms have finished, don’t worry, more are coming from now till Wednesday, everybody will have the opportunity to register from his own unit and this is the foundation for APC to take over Akwa Ibom come 2023,” the party leader added.
Also, speaking, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Ita Enang, thanked the national leadership of the party for the commencement of the exercise in Akwa Ibom state.
Enang urged the party in the state to encourage more members to join the ongoing exercise, adding that it would enable the party to win the presidential, Senatorial, governorship and all other seats in the state and the country.
“Let me also use this opportunity to thank the national leadership of the party for considering an Akwa Ibom son, Senator Akpan James Udoedeghe worthy and good enough to be the National Secretary of the party. We consider it as an honour to Akwa Ibom state and South-South for finding our son worthy.
“The All Progressives Congress is the biggest party in the whole of Africa; it is the strongest party and led by most honoured and transparent man in the whole of Africa, President Muhammadu Buhari.
“President Buhari is a great leader of Nigeria and he allows everybody to exercise the job and office he or she is given that is why he allowed the party to exercise the function of the party. But when they went beyond elbow, they had to set up a Caretaker Committee, and it is the function of this Caretaker Committee to organise this registration.
“I use this opportunity to let everybody know that this registration is not for anybody’s personal interest or ambition, it is to register members of the party so that whether you are supporting A or B or C for Senate, House of Assembly, President or for Governor of Akwa Ibom State, please let everybody come and register.
“The time to choose who will be the governorship candidate, the presidential candidate, the Senatorial candidate and all the other candidates will be during the nomination. So, the registration is for all members of the party.
“Let me report to the Chairman of the Committee, that I am impressed with the high calibre of the PDP members who have come to join and register in APC. Most of them have been supporting us discreetly but they have now come out to register and that they want to make sure that government in Akwa Ibom state is rid of PDP and the next governor of the state will be from APC,” he added.