From Okey Sampson, Umuahia
The governorship candidate of Labour Party (LP), in Abia State Dr. Alex Otti has alerted the public over the removal of his campaign billboard by agents of the state government despite paying the stipulated N10m fee to the state government, warning of it’s consequences.
A statement by Ferdinand Ekeoma,
spokesman, Alex Otti Campaign Organisation said a few days ago they issued a press release, complaining against unprovoked acts of violence being perpetrated by the agents of the PDP led Abia state government against her members and destruction of theircampaign billboards and flexes.
Ekeoma said in the earlier release, they had asked Abians to hold the PDP led government responsible in the event of breakdown of law and order in Abia state over the manner her agents have been destroying their billboards.
“As if they were emboldened by our lawful alarm and appeal, the government has gone a step further to perpetrate another act of provocative violence by illegally removing our newly erected billboard around Umuikaa Junction, along the Aba-Port Harcourt Expressway.
“It’s important to inform the general public that as law abiding citizens with utmost regard and respect for our laws and constituted authorities, we adhered strictly to all known guidelines for the mounting of campaign billboards as regulated by the Abia State Signage and Advertisement Agency (ABSAA) and also paid the required sum of N10m to Abia state government.
“We are also very much aware that the Licenced Vendors we contracted also paid the government all fees required for them to use their billboards for advertisements in Abia state”.
The statement further said it could be possibly because of members of the Organization’s refusal to retaliate against previous provocative acts of lawlessness that made the perpetrators found the motivation to repeate same thing.
“These releases and appeals are not signs of cowardice or weakness, but well intended measures to reassure Abians of our pro-people peaceful disposition as well as to put the public in the know and set the record straight for future references.
“We hope that those presiding over the affairs of Abia and who are responsible for these desperation-induced violence would quickly realise that tomorrow is heavily pregnant and that there’s life outside politics and thus retrace their steps for the sake of our state and our people”, the statement added.