As campaigns for the 2023 general elections gather momentum, ruling parties in various states are deploying strange and unacceptable tactics to ensure opposition is weakened in their states. From Lagos to Kaduna, Imo to Plateau, Delta to Benue and across the country, The Guardian gathered that opposition parties are facing serious challenge mobilising support for their candidates.
As campaigns for the 2023 general elections gather momentum, ruling parties in various states are deploying strange and unacceptable tactics to ensure opposition is weakened in their states.As campaigns for the 2023 general elections gather momentum, ruling parties in various states are deploying strange and unacceptable tactics to ensure opposition is weakened in their states.
Most APC billboards, whose governorship candidate is Tonye Cole, located in Umuokpurukpu in Omuma Council of the state, Uyeanda in Andoni, Chokocho and Egwi in Etche Council have been vandalised. Also, the APC in Rivers State has described the Executive Order 21 and 22 signed by the governor as a pure example of stifling the opposition.
The Director of Media and Communication for Dumo Lulu-Briggs Governorship Campaign Council, Sotonye Ijuye-Dagogo blamed what he described as “disturbing aspect of the happenings” in the state on the indifference of the presidency, INEC and security agencies, saying that the Federal Government is yet to condemn in unambiguous terms, Governor Nyesom Wike’s actions against democracy in the state and in the country.
Citing violent acts among members of the Rivers APC, Green said the state government was not ready to expose the stadium to any risk of being damaged. Affected political parties such as, the Peoples Democratic Party and Labour Party said the state government is also denying them opportunity to air their jingles in the state media.
The Director of Public Affairs of the PDP Atiku-Ashiru Campaign Council, Yakubu Lere, while reacting, said, “despite the restriction of the Nasir el-Rufai’s government, we are always well received by the people in places we go to for our campaigns. Meanwhile, the Vice Chairman of the Kaduna State Peace Commission, Saleh Bomale, had earlier warned political parties and actors against doing things that would likely derail political process in the state. He warned against thuggery and other undemocratic activities. The warning was contained in a statement he issued when the campaign rally of the PDP was disturbed by thugs in the state.The situation in Plateau is not any better.
Recently, the country home of the PDP House of Representatives candidate for Ideato North and Ideato South Federal Constituency, and the spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties , Ikenga Ugochinyere Imo Ikeagwuonu, in Umukegwu Akokwa in Ideato, was razed down by unknown gunmen. Over 30 cars and some valuable properties were also reduced to rubbles. His uncle and two of his orderlies were reported, killed.
APC governorship candidate and Deputy President of the Senate, Chief Ovie Omo-Agege, warned other political parties that engage in the harassment of his party supporters not to offend the law. On its part, the LP, last month, accused the state government of denying it and its presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, access to a venue for a rally in Asaba.
But Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Mr. Olisa Ifeajika, dismissed the allegation, saying there was no iota of truth in them. He said: “To the best of my knowledge, no billboard has been destroyed anywhere in the state. You know PDP is not a violent party; we are not violent people either. So, if it is true that their billboards were destroyed, they should go and report to the Police for necessary action.
“They flagged off their campaigns at the Warri Township Stadium, owned by the state government, nobody stopped them. They have been to Gbaramatu and even the governor’s local government area to campaign and they were not attacked or denied access to anywhere they wanted to go or use,” he said, adding that Okowa’s other name is democracy, which allows everybody to do their thing.
He added that the state government did not sponsor erection of billboards during the recent presidential rally of the party in the state. According to him, the state party’s campaign council sponsored the campaign billboards. The National Publicity Secretary, Abayomi Arabambi, said: “The report of this blanket ban is not only satanic, but it is likely to truncate this hard-earned democracy.”
Another staunch member and youth leader of APC in Edo State, Comrade Tony Adun, popularly known as ‘Kabaka’, told the audience at the APC Presidential rally that opposition party leaders in the state had become a target of the state government as they are intimidated by the government with demolition notice on their landed property.
A pro-APC group under the aegis of the Benue Coalition on Human Rights in a petition to the President, the Inspector-General of Police, the National Security Adviser and Heads of other security agencies on what it termed ‘the activities’ of the Benue Volunteer Guards and the Benue State government, alleged that the guards were being used to harass and intimidate opposition elements.
When The Guardian sought the views of the PDP on the allegations leveled against it by the APC, the PDP state publicity secretary and Director, Media and Publicity of the PDP campaign council, Bemgba Iortyom, dismissed the allegations, saying, the APC should face their woes and stop looking for excuses, as they would be defeated in the general elections.
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