Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra, has accused his
predecessor, Peter Obi, of denying the Labour Party (LP) the opportunity to
freely campaign in the state when he was governor.
Soludo spoke on Thursday in an interview on Channels
Television.
During the interview, the Anambra governor was asked to
react to allegations from LP leaders that the state government is restricting
the party in terms of political campaigns.
Reacting, Soludo said he had twice granted Obi, LP
presidential candidate, the opportunity to use government properties in the state
for campaign.
“It does not worth my
time to comment on the rantings of some people — about their billboards or no
billboards and so on,” he said.
“I don’t want to be drawn into that. I think that has been
exhaustively dealt with by the government and the Anambra state signage agency
that regulates this.
“The point that was repeated is that the signage agency had
commended me for being the most tolerant governor as it regards free and fair
electoral practice.
“It is on record and
everybody knows that I have twice granted the presidential candidate of the
Labour Party to use government properties — government house — for his campaign
without charging him a penny.
“Nobody has done that. He did not do that when he was in government.
He did not even allow Labour Party, where he is now, to freely campaign in
Anambra. He denied them even the venue that they paid for.
“But I have allowed him to use the government house twice
free of charge. They were in Onitsha to go and campaign. They have their
billboards all over the place but the point is when you failed to play by the
rule, you put up billboards and you don’t pay for the relevant things. Of
course, the signage agency will come after you.
“Even yesterday, I heard a complaint they pulled down even
the billboard of an APGA candidate for a federal house. He has not paid and
they pulled it down. This is the state’s rule of law.
“Even when they said
their billboards were pulled down, you go all over the state, the billboards
are lining up everywhere, where they have met the terms and conditions for
that.
“They want some kind of entitlement. We can’t continue to
give them everything for free. PDP, APC, and others are not complaining. Why
only them?”
Obi was governor of Anambra three times between 2006 and
2014, owing to a series of legal battles occasioned by impeachment and issues
on election schedule.
Obi became governor on the platform of the All Progressives
Grand Alliance (APGA), but left the party for the Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP) in October 2014, and joined LP in May 2022.
The LP presidential candidate was the governor of Anambra during
the December 2013 governorship election, and Ifeanyi Ubah, now a senator, was
the then-governorship candidate of the LP in Anambra.
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