3,973 youth ‘soldiers’ to mobilise for Tinubu

Ahead of the February 25 presidential election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) has unveiled a list of 3,973 youth ‘soldiers’ to mobilise votes for its presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

The youth soldiers, known as ‘Jagaban Army’ were compiled by the office of the national youth leader with brigades in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.

Lagos State leads the army with 445 soldiers, followed by Ogun with 235, while Bayelsa has the least number of 44.

Kano has 199; Kaduna 112; Adamawa 128; Borno 177; Yobe 136; and Kwara 100, among others.

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The APC National Youth Leader, Hon. Dayo Israel, said it was false to say that the youth population is behind the candidate of the LP, Peter Obi, adding that no party has an all-encompassing youth structure in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria like the APC.

Meanwhile, the APC National Youth Wing is set to inaugurate its campaign council formed to mobilise youth votes for the party on Friday in Kaduna State.

Israel reiterated the wing’s commitment to its pledge to secure 50 million youth votes for the party next month. Israel would be joined at the Friday inauguration by other leaders of the party, notably the governor of the host state Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, leaders and members of the Council, elected leaders of the youth wing, and party stakeholders from across the country.

The over 200,000-member strong Council comprises 176,846 polling unit youth leaders, 774 LGA youth leaders, 37 state youth leaders, and six zonal youth leaders that make up the party’s youth wing.

They are joined by other acclaimed grassroots mobilizers and young members of the party with expertise in research, data and election management, media strategy, and public engagement.

The inauguration will mark the actuation of the Council’s directorates and the unveiling of other campaign materials and innovations.

This includes the Jagaban’s Army, a sub-directorate tasked with grassroots mobilization through foot soldiers represented in all the polling units of the country to engage and persuade voters with the support of a canvassers’ record sheet which will also be unveiled at the event.

Other sub-directorates such as Jagaban’s Airforce and BAT’s envoy responsible for media engagements and public affairs respectively, will also be formally launched.