By Chukwudi Nweje
The Ebonyi State Government has said the political billboards of Prof. Bernard I. Odoh, governorship candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) were removed because they breached the Signage and Advertisement Law.
“The Signage and Advertisement Law of Ebonyi State provides for the regulation and control of outdoor advertisement in pursuance of relevant sections of Abakaliki Capital Territory Development Board Law No 5 of 2007.
“The Ministry of Capital City and Urban Development followed all the laid down procedures including issuing statutory notices, in calling the attention of the service providers to comply with the requirement of Law on the issuance of permits for advertisement, but they failed and or refused to comply, resulting to the removal of the advertisement structures on the affected billboards,” it said.
A statement by Orji Uchenna Orji, Commissioner for Information and State Orientation, asked Odoh to stop making malicious and dishonest allegations against the government with a view of arousing public sentiments.
He noted that governments in all jurisdictions enforce Signage and Advertisement Law for environmental reasons, including the State where the government is controlled by APGA, and that Ebonyi State cannot be an exception. He said it was height of political despondency for Prof. Odoh to politicise government policies for selfish reasons and urged him to desist from playing on the honour and integrity and the electorates.
The commissioner described Odoh as a political Chameleon whose hallmarks in betrayal, backstabbing and campaign of calumny have broken all records.
“We need not remind Prof. Odoh that his antecedents, political idiosyncrasies and boastfully proud disposition to his political aspiration have gained notoriety in the minds of the members of the public right from his first failed attempt as a contestant in the governorship election of 2019 and he cannot, therefore, swindle their sense of reasoning with this obsolete political campaign strategy. He will be swimming in fantasies in believing that by this appeal to pity and usual resort to clannish sentiments, the horrible memories of his old past as secretary to the State Government (SSG) shall varnish.”