The governorship candidate of the Young Progressive Party (YPP) for the November 8 election in Anambra State, Sir Paul Chukwuma, has criticised the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, over the alleged removal of his campaign billboards by the state government.
Chukwuma, in a statement from his media office on Tuesday, said that he was surprised that his campaign billboard at the popular UNIZIK Junction in Awka, the state capital, was removed despite paying a whooping N50 million fee to the Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency (ANSAA).
The YPP candidate, who expressed concerns over the ugly development, said no amount of political intimidation or removal of campaign billboards would save him from being removed from office by Ndi Anambra on election day.
According to the statement, the Governor has intensified schemes to frustrate credible opposition in the November 8 guber election, judging from his recent steps and actions since and even before the lifting of ban on campaigns by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The statement reads: “The Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has intensified schemes to frustrate credible opposition in the November 8 Anambra State Governorship Election.
“First, the governor issued a memo through the Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency (ANSAA), slamming a whooping N50 million on parties as political campaign fees, for political parties participating in the November Election before they are allowed to campaign and carry on with their advertorials.
“The Young Progressive Party candidate, Sir Paul Chukwuma, has made the payment of N50 million as demanded by ANSAA, as a law-abiding democrat, who believes in the strength of fair competition and fact-based campaign, which are critical elements of a functional democracy.
“Subsequently, the YPP’s advertorial was set up at UNIZIK Junction in Awka, on a billboard space owned and managed by ESMIC International Ltd, a registered and licensed advertising firm in Nigeria.
“But to the consternation of the Management of ESMIC and the Sir Paul Chukwuma’s Media Office, the campaign billboard — which YPP mounted after securing the permits and every necessary — was removed and damaged by ANSAA, on the instruction of Governor Soludo.
“Not surprisingly, Soludo had shown clear signs of a full-blown emperor. He is so afraid of competition in a democratic setting, that he could demand competitors to pay such a huge sum for political adverts and still turn around to damage the opposition party’s billboard after the payments have been duly made.
“Ndi Anambra must stand up to this high-handedness of Governor Soludo. It must be recalled that towards the build-up of the Presidential Election, at the same Unizik Junction, billboards belonging to the LP candidate were removed as well.
“This points to Soludo’s arrogant arbitrary use of governmental powers to persecute opposition.
“If Governor Soludo and his army of praise singers calling him all sorts of self-serving names to massage his overgrown ego are truly confident in their credibility, what then is he afraid of? Why is he hunting down the opposition’s free and legitimate expression of stake in the coming election if he was certain he had already won the election?
“We shouldn’t expect anything more from a small-minded person like Soludo. But posterity will judge him very harshly, because karma is real. However, before then, Anambra voters shall teach him valuable life lessons come November 8.”
