Abia State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised alarm over the destruction and defacing of campaign posters of President Muhammadu Buhari and the Governorship candidate of the party in the state, Dr. Uche Ogah within Umuahia, the state capital.
In a telephone interview with the Publicity Secretary of the party, Comrade Benedict Godson on Wednesday, the party accused the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of being behind the defacing and destruction of President Buhari and Ogah’s campaign posters. APC while warning that the party would no longer watch the ruling party in the state using hoodlums to destroy campaign posters of the President, its governorship candidate in the state and any other candidate of the party said that henceforth anybody caught engaging in this wicked act would be dealt with according to the law.
According to Godson, the defacing of its candidates’ campaign posters is a sign that the ruling party is defeated already and stated that the party is concerned about at the moment is how to sell ideas of their candidates to the people of the state and ensuring that President Buhari gets maximum votes in Abia State.
Godson, while enjoining members of the party and Abians to get their PVCs and be ready to vote out bad government from office come 2019, assured that the party would ensure that the votes of the people counted.
“I want to advice our brothers in the opposition party that this is not the way that democracy is being played.
I believe that they have seen that we have come to take over the state and I want to plead with them to gently hand over the mantle of leadership of Abia State to Dr. Sampson Uche Ogah who has come to liberate Abia from bondage come 2019.
“Destruction of billboards and posters Mr. President, Uche Ogah and other candidates of the party is undemocratic and that cannot stop us from returning Mr. President Muhammadu Buhari who has done so well in terms of good roads, constant light, better life for Nigerians and Uche Ogah as both President and governor of the country and Abia State respectively.
“It is important to say that the PDP government that we have in Abia State has failed Abians in all ramifications. They owe teachers from Primary to tertiary. The roads that they claim that they have built have caved in and they cannot justify the amount of money they claimed to have spent on such roads.
“The little that we are seeing in the state are being built by the federal government through the NDDC. “We want to assure them that nobody has monopoly of violence and destruction of posters. We are warning the PDP to stop destruction of our candidates’ campaign posters with immediate effect,” said Godson.
In a related development a statement issued by Ogah’s campaign office on Wednesday corroborated Godson’s claims and further alleged that eyewitnesses has it that a team of six mobile police men in company with some agents of Abia State government along Aba Road and other parts of the state capital carried out the ugly act.
"To confirm this report, a team was dispatched from our Campaign Office to the said locations and it turned out to be true. Many of our newly pasted posters of Dr Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah/Buhari with the All Progressives Congress logos had been destroyed. But the shameless elements who perpetuated this barbaric act had escaped from the scene before the arrival of our team but our eye witnesses gave a valid account of all that transpired.
“Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah frowns at this unholy behaviour that can only be perpetuated by low lives and cowards. He wants to sound a note of warning to the Abia State government led by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the state to desist from such shameful act or be ready for an appropriate response. “Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah believes that election is about the contest of ideas and the opportunity to present the people with a program of action on how to better their lives and that of their generations yet unborn; That those who seek to lead must have the confidence to face public scrutiny amidst contending ideas.
"In the light of the above, Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah is asking the failed PDP government in Abia State to challenge the All Progressives Congress in Abia State based on their records of performance and allow free contest devoid of intimidation or harassment to enable Ndi Abia to make their choices without fear of molestation. He is hereby assuring the PDP and their failed administration in Abia State that the party and merriment is over. From now on, any act of intimidation by the PDP in the state, the government and their agents will be severely retaliated within the confines of the law.
“All Abians are hereby encouraged to report any act of intimidation, harassment or molestation in any part of Abia state to Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah’s Campaign Office and the appropriate response will follow.
“It is no longer going to be business as usual. All Abians are equal stakeholders in the state and they can no longer be made strangers in their own affairs. They must be allowed the freedom of choice that they deserve to choose between the failed diabolical PDP government that have looted our state to waste and the deliverable action plan of the APC led by Dr.Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah and Martins Azubuike; which will transform Abia into a prosperous sub national economy.
“All Progressives Congress members in Abia State and other members of the Abia public are hereby encouraged to report anybody in their locality who dares to harass them or to tamper with Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah/President Buhari’s posters or Dr. Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah/ Rt. Hon Martins Azubuike’s posters and other campaign materials. We promise to ensure that such actions are severely punished and any individual or groups involved brought to justice.
“The peace and development of Abia state is the primary focus of Dr Uchechukwu Sampson Ogah and Rt Hon Martins Azubuike and that will not be allowed to be toyed with,” the statement concluded.
The Nation
