The Independent National Electoral Commission has disowned membership figures of political parties released by the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, saying the data did not emanate from the commission.
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The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Dayo Oketola, made the clarification on Tuesday while reacting to figures attributed to Yilwatda during an interview on ARISE News.
“Dear esteemed media colleagues, please note that this is certainly not from INEC. Thanks,” Oketola said in a message sent to journalists.
Yilwatda had claimed during the interview that the APC had 12.9 million registered members, far ahead of the Peoples Democratic Party, African Democratic Congress, Labour Party and National Democratic Coalition.
According to him, the PDP had 2.4 million registered members, the ADC 1.6 million, the LP 1.3 million and the NDC 700,000 members.
The APC chairman said, “Let me give you data. Let me break data for you. APC submitted 12.9 million registered voters. PDP submitted 2.4 million registered voters. The ADC submitted 1.6 million registered voters. Labour Party submitted 1.3 million registered voters and NDC submitted 700,000 registered members.”
He further argued that the combined membership strength of the opposition parties mentioned did not match that of the APC.
“If you put all these political parties together, they don’t add up to APC’s registered members. All the political parties, this number I’ve counted, they’re not up to the number that APC registered,” he said.
Yilwatda also claimed that the APC’s membership database was more credible because, according to him, it had been verified through the National Identity Management Commission.
He said the ruling party synchronised its membership data with NIMC, insisting that the APC was the only political party with such verified data.
“All our data of our members are verified by NIMC. We synchronised data with NIMC. So for you to be a member of APC, just like how you register in banks, for passport, for driver’s licence, the same thing is how you register with APC,” he stated.
The APC chairman also defended the party’s recent presidential primary, where President Bola Tinubu was said to have secured about 10.9 million votes.
He argued that since the APC had about 12.9 million registered members, the turnout was reasonable, saying only about two million members did not participate in the exercise.
“We had about 12.9 million and about 10.9 million voted, which means about two million people did not vote across the country,” he said.
Yilwatda maintained that the APC remained the most organised political party in the country, adding that its membership register and internal processes showed that the party was prepared for future elections.
However, INEC’s denial has raised questions over the source of the figures cited by the APC chairman, especially as the data was widely circulated on social media and attributed by many users to the electoral commission.
The development has also triggered concerns among observers over whether political party membership data submitted to INEC is being accessed or interpreted outside official channels.
INEC’s clarification means the commission has not officially confirmed the membership figures quoted by Yilwatda, despite his claim that the data was submitted to the electoral body.
However, the denial has sparked further questions among Nigerians, with some arguing that many government agencies often change their positions when controversies arise, thereby deepening public distrust over the source of the figures and whether someone within INEC may have provided the information to the APC chairman.
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