Ogbonnaya Ikokwu, Umuahia
The campaign organization of the Labor Party Governorship candidate in Abia State Mr Alex Otti, has alleged that the agents of the state government were intimidating her members destroying their campaign billboards.
The director general of the campaign organization Mr Iheanacho Obioma, stated this in Umuahia the capital on Thursday, adding that the actions of the state government was capable of setting the state on fire.
He called on the Federal government, the Police and the Department of state services to call Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and the Peoples Democratic Party to order to ensure that the state was not plunged into crisis in the run up to the 2023 general election.
He stated that the officials of the Abia State Signage and Advertisement Agency led by her general manager Mr Anthony Otuonye, had removed a flex banner newly installed on a billboard around Umuikaa Junction axis of the Enugu
/ Port Harcourt express way
claiming that he acted on the instructions of the state.
Obioma, said Otuonye had claimed
that the PDP has no presence of her campaign material in area and thus the agency would not allow an opposition party to mount here billboard there.
He stated that ABSAA carried out the act despite the fact that the campaign organization had paid the required Levy to the agency.
The DG also said that a House of Assembly candidate on the platform of the party for Isialangwa South State Constituency, Mr. iUbani Danie had alleged of a plot to illegally abduct and remand him in prison on a trumped up charges of murder.
He added that security agents had trailed Danie, to a radio station where he was a guest at a live radio programme in Umuahia to execute their plot.
Obioma said, "It's important to note that our governorship candidate, Dr. Alex Otti paid Abia state government the statutory Ten Milluon Naira (N10,000,000) required from every governorship candidate.
"Because there wasn't an already existing billboard there we spent nothing less than Four Million naira (N4,000,000) to the vendor we contracted and the owner of the billboard who moved it all the way from Port Harcourt to Umuikaa junction.
"Even when we do not have need to use the said billboard for eight months(8months) we had to
pay for that number of months for the owner to accept to deal with us on that particular billboard.
"The vendor also paid the said ABSAA General Manager the sum of One Million Two Hundred Thousand naira (1,200,000) which he collected and approved the
installation of the billboard, before he turned around and removed less that 48 hours after it had been installed.
"To justify his barbaric and provocative action, he falsely claimed that the Vendor agreed to allow him use it for PDP campaign before he gave/the approval. If one may ask, how can a vendor and billboard owner who were contracted and paid by a candidate who had earlier paid the government turn around and to over their client's billboard to the PDP because PDP is the ruling party?
"We have already written to the Police and the DSS concerning this particular incident and the DSS has repeatedly warned Mr. Otuonye against setting the state on fire through his actions and asked him to resolve the matter quickly by allowing us mount our billboard which we paid for.
"The actions of the PDP led Abia state government which continually manifest violence and intolerance have continued to contradict Ikpeazu's cosmetic claims of
being peace loving and tolerant while exposing him as a desperate man who is willing to enable and endorse violence on the state in a bid to give his handpicked candidate undue advantage ahead of the 2023 elections.
"Finally, we call on the federal government of Nigeria, the Police, the DSS and indeed all law enforcement agencies saddled with the responsibilities of ensuring
peace and order to call governor Okezie Ikpeazu and the Abia state PDP to order before they set Abia on fire".
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