From Joe Effiong, Uyo
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State has commenced a fresh membership registration and reassessment campaign with a view to scooping up about 6.9 million members in the state.
The membership registration and reassessment, which is targeted at both new and old members, began a fortnight ago and was billed to end this weekend.
However, Daily Sun learned from the party hierarchy in the state that the exercise would be made continuous to give opportunity to those who might have missed it before the deadline.
Flagging off the Membership Registration and Reassessment Campaign at the PDP State Secretariat Complex, the Akwa Ibom State Chairman of the PDP, Mr Aniekan Akpan, said at an Emergency expanded Exco meeting of the Party that the exercise, which is geared towards expanding the already robust membership base of the party, is expected to move the membership statistics of the PDP in Akwa Ibom State to about 6.9 million active members.
Akpan said, “Every week, thousands of Akwa Ibom people continue to reach out to members of our party across the different strata, expressing their genuine desire to register as bona fide members of the PDP. Also, every day, we have people who turn 18 and want to belong to our party, which is the most preferred political party by Akwa Ibomites.
Therefore, this membership registration and reassessment exercise, apart from being a directive of the National Headquarters of our Party that States should organise and float a Periodic membership reassessment exercise, is also our own way of opening our doors to new members, while also reassessing and updating the membership status of our old members.
So, we have distributed Membership Registers and Cards which will be in the custody of the Ward Chairmen across the 369 Wards in Akwa Ibom State with the directive that the Ward Chairmen should register new members and reassess and update the membership status of old members at no cost to anyone. His Excellency, the Governor of our State and Leader of the PDP in Akwa Ibom has cautioned that no Chairman should demand a dime from anyone as a condition for registration and reassessment of membership, and I am sure that the Ward Chairmen in their usual manner will heed this directive.”
The State PDP Chairman also re-echoed the call to the remaining members of other political parties to use the opportunity offered by this exercise to return to the PDP fold.
The Akwa Ibom State PDP helmsman lauded the Governor of Akwa Ibom State for the visionary and superlative way he has led the State and the Party in the past one year, stressing that the impressive gains of the Pastor Umo Eno-led administration have given Akwa Ibom and the PDP a lot of mileage across diverse sectors in the state’s development trajectory.
Other officers of the Party who spoke at the meeting expressed optimism that the exercise will be hugely successful as it receives total support and commitment from existing members of the Party.
