A chieftain of the party, however, told Daily Trust that lack of funding was responsible for the delay in the commencement of the exercise.
“Funding is the main reason why the exercise has not commenced in Abuja. You know, we don’t have a governor, the FCT senator is a PDP member and the area council chairmen are battling to run the affairs of their councils.
“Here, the minister is the leader but he is not a core politician, hence no fund is provided.
“Stakeholders are now struggling to raise funds for it. Apart from the minister, nobody has revalidated or registered in Abuja. We are anxious and awaiting the commencement of the registration,” he said, pleading not to be named.
Another party stalwart corroborated the dearth of funds, saying it was however being addressed. He said stakeholders have been asked to support the party in that regard.
“The issue is being addressed. The challenge of funding is not peculiar to FCT; states too are having a similar issue. We also have the issue of logistics for the exercise. We started receiving materials on Wednesday for it. Soon training will commence,” he said.
But the chairman of APC in the FCT, Alhaji Abdulmalik Usman, has said that the exercise was yet to commence in the FCT because the party was taking its time to resolve issues at the state level.
In a telephone chat yesterday, he said the party had concluded plans for the exercise to kick-off in the FCT next week, adding that the personnel and registration materials were already on the ground.
He dispelled claims in some quarters that the APC was broke and could not produce enough registration materials. He also dismissed claims that the FCT Minister, Mohammed Musa Bello, had declined to sponsor the exercise in the FCT.
Secretary of the APC Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee, Senator John Akpan Udoedehe, did not pick call or respond to a text message sent to his phone at the time of filing this report.
