Hassan Ayariga's APC explains why minors were present at delegates' congress

The newly formed All People’s Congress (APC) has explained why minors were present at its delegates’ congress held in Accra to elect a presidential candidate ahead of the November polls.

According to the party, the children were there on a tourism visit.

The party’s General Secretary, Razak Kojo Opoku said the children came there in the company of friends who were registered members of the party, and further explained that the party could not turn them away because “APC has compassion for nature.”

“At a congress of this nature, we don’t expect to have the real committed members. Some may even follow their friends. Some have not even gotten the opportunity to enter the Accra International Conference Centre. So they saw it as a tourist opportunity to come and see this place. So when they come, APC because we love nature and have compassion for nature, we can’t sack them from the premises. We have to allow them in.”

Explaining why the children were wearing delegates’ tags, Mr Opoku said, “the accreditation that we did, it was delegates, VIP and the media. So how they had it to get it inside, they had to get some of the delegates’ accreditation and give it to them.”

Admitting that the children were not “politically matured” to know the importance of the party’s activities, Mr Opoku noted that “APC we have come to stay. We are not going to limit ourselves to this 2016 elections. We are going to contest 2020 and subsequent elections. So I would say it is a good strategy to bring the minors on board so by 2020 they would have attained the voting age and they will vote the APC.”