Otti Campaign Warns Against Arrest of Volunteers

Fri, Jan 30, 2015

By publisher

7 MIN READ

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THE Alex Otti campaign has decried plans by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia State to arrest all door-to-door volunteers soliciting for votes and support for the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, governorship flag bearer. The campaign organisation wondered when it became a crime to ask for the personal details of prospective voters in a bid to forging a bond with them before elections.

Otti, according to his campaign team, is riding on the crest wave of massive goodwill in Abia State ahead of the polls and has been tipped to win the governorship race next month by a range of political analysts.

“In what we consider a really bad joke taken too far, the PDP run Abia State government has asked security agencies to arrest our door-to-door volunteers who have been embarking on a quite legitimate task of soliciting for votes from eligible voters in Abia State. The offence of the volunteers, according to a cerebrally challenged government, is that they “ask for personal details” of prospective voters during their door-to-door visits across the State. When has it become an offence to pay visits to people these days? Do we squeeze the details out of the respondents at gun point? Why are the PDP and its puppeteer of a candidate not embarking on door-to-door campaigns of their own?” a senior aide in the Otti campaign organization queried.

The aide also said the door-to-door volunteers deploy the personal information mined from prospective voters to keep up communication channels with them because it is the best way to run a people oriented campaign in a technologically savvy 21^st century. “We are bent on running a grass-root oriented campaign, whether the PDP and its goons like it or not. Our candidate has established an emotional connection with the voting population in Abia State and that emotive DNA runs throughout the campaign structure. Ndi Abia have warmed up to us on this account and tender their personal details without scruples because we have earned their trust in the course of time and because they see us as partners in the task of freeing Abia from the shackles of godfather leadership with its attendant poor governance insignia”, the statement read.

The campaign also advised the security agencies not to allow themselves to “become pawns in the chess game of the incumbent Governor and the cabal who have held Abia State by the jugular for eight years and who have stolen the State dry in the intervening period”.

“We expect our esteemed security personnel across Abia State to continue to remain on the side of the people, the law and justice at all times”, the statement concluded.

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Alex Otti’s Campaign Eviction Notice

ALEX Otti’s door-to-door campaign initiative has sent out an eviction notice of some sort to Theodore Ahamefule Orji, Abia State Governor, and his “handpicked” Governorship candidate for the general elections next month, Okezie Ikpeazu.

According to Otti’s Campaign team, their candidate, a former managing director of Diamond Bank, has endeared himself to the young and old in Abia State by running a decent and issues-based campaign in the build up to the polls.

A terse statement made available to Realnews from Umuahia, the Abia State capital on Wednesday, January 28, and signed by the coordinator of the Alex Otti door-to-door initiative, he said that the days of vote stealing in Abia State are long gone and advised the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate for the race and the incumbent governor to decipher the signs of the times and give up on whatever subterranean moves they may have been hatching ahead of the polls.

“It is evident that Governor Theodore Orji (who goes by the ‘Ochendo’ moniker ) and his gang  are still banking on the well-worn tactics deployed during past elections to see them through this time as well, but they are in for a shocker”, a senior officer in the campaign organisation said. The senior officer advised the governor and the PDP candidate to decipher the signs, read the writing on the wall and give up on whatever subterranean moves they have been hatching ahead of the polls because this is the year when voters will have a say in who governs them”.

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Anambra State Warns Politicians

ANAMBRA State government has warned candidates of political parties whose names were not listed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the forth coming National and State Assembly elections in the state to stop campaigning for votes. In a statement signed by Tony Onyima, commissioner for information, culture and tourism, the state government said the warned that it would enforce the law on any defaulter.

“This announcement is to remind the general public especially politicians and particularly those jostling for elective positions in the forthcoming National and State House of Assembly elections in the state that the bill on ‘Breaches of the Peace and Unlawful Assemblies Prohibition’ recently passed into law by the State House of Assembly and assented to by Willie Obiano, governor of the state, is still in place in the state.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the Law stipulates that a person shall not advertise, publish, and solicit votes or otherwise engage in any campaign for himself or for a person whose name was not duly published by the INEC or State Independent Electoral Commission, ANSIEC, or any other electoral body within Nigeria as a nominated person or candidate for any election within the state,” he said.

According to Onyima, those who are still parading themselves as candidates in the forthcoming elections and who have continued to solicit votes from the unwary electorates in the state are by this announcement reminded that they are in clear violation of the law and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of one million Naira or to a term of one year or to both fine and imprisonment.

He said the law enforcement agencies in the state have been directed to deal with anybody who is not a candidate in the forthcoming elections and who deliberately acts in contravention of this law. “Any political party aspirant or supporter who ordinarily delights in daring the government in this regard will have himself or herself to blame.”

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Obiano Increases Civil Servant Salary

THE Anambra State Executive Council has approved the adjustment in salary of all civil servants in the state by fifteen percent with effect from January, 2015. According to a statement signed by Tony Onyima, commissioner for information, culture and tourism, the decision is in fulfilment of the promise made by Governor Willie Obiano shortly on assumption of office, to put smiles on the faces of civil servants in the State.

Onyima recalled that during Governor Obiano’s first meeting with the state workforce, he had promised to raise the salary of civil servants to bring it at par with those of their counterparts in the local government system. The promise, the commissioner stated, was contingent on the improvement in the state’s internally generated revenue, IGR, which at that time stood at N500 million monthly. The commissioner noted however that with aggressive pursuit of IGR as well as the effective blockage of loopholes which hitherto led to loss of substantial revenue, the current IGR of the State has risen to more than N1 billion. He called on civil servants in the state to reciprocate the government’s good gesture by improving their productivity and working assiduously for a better Anambra State.

— Feb. 9, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT

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