Ahead of the November 6 Anambra State governorship election, political parties have lamented the impact of insecurity on their campaigns ahead of the crucial election.
This is even as the leading parties have embarked on a fight-to-finish campaign despite the security challenges.
The frontline parties which include the state-ruling All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) have been on campaign tour of each of the 21 local governments, selling their parties development plans, their candidates, and urging the people to vote for them.
President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent directive to the nation’s security chiefs to ensure that the governorship poll was conducted without fail, and the assurances of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that the exercise would be conducted free of manipulation certainty have buoyed the confidence of the candidates and their supporters.
Except the APGA and its candidate, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, that has been visiting the 21 local governments and campaigning for votes after the party formally flagged off its campaigns in Awka, the state capital, virtually all the other parties and their candidates, including APC and PDP, have had their campaign programmes stifled due to the prevailing insecurity in the state.
Director of operations of Valentine Campaign Organisation (VCO) of PDP, Sir Fab Ozigbo, in an interview with LEADERSHIP Weekend, lamented that insecurity had impacted “very negatively” on their campaigns.
He said, “They deliberately created the insecurity situation to scare people from coming to hear us, but I am confident that if God sees us through in this local government campaign tours, He will surely give us the ultimate victory, because whatever you do, if God doesn’t protect it, it won’t work.”
Ozigbo, however, disclosed that its group had resumed the local government campaign tours, to ensure that it visits the remaining ten local governments ahead of the deadline for ending of campaigns. Incidentally, Ozigbo had already toured all the 326 wards in the build-up to the PDP governorship primaries.
Leader of the PDP in the state, former governor Peter Obi had in the build-up to the party’s primary, urged all the contestants to go to the grassroots, and campaign for the party instead of concentrating their energies and resources to emerge candidate of the party.
He told them that what was most important was that the party won the governorship poll.
The APC and its candidate, Senator Andy Uba, also lamented that the wave of insecurity had forced them to shut down their campaign programmes.
Director of Senator Andy Uba Governorship Campaign Organisation (SAUGCO), a former House of Representatives member, Hon Victor Afam Ogene, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that besides frustrating the planned kick-off of the party’s campaigns, insecurity had made it imposible to distribute the campaign materials procured for distribution to the targeted beneficiaries.
Chronicling how the security challenges impacted the party, Ogene said, “Insecurity has affected APC campaigns in the following ways: flag-off of campaigns scheduled to take place in the first week of October couldn’t be held; the local government tours rather began very late into the campaign the season being due to insecurity: campaign materials can no longer be shared as people are scared to have an insignia with political parties logo on it, and, getting huge numbers of people at rallies, or, even local meetings are difficult due to the fear bred by insecurity.”
Unlike the PDP, APC and other parties and their candidates, the APGA strongly believe that it is an act of “cowardice” for any party and its candidate to chicken out from campaigning because of the security challenges.
The director of media and publicity of the party’s governorship campaign organisation, and commissioner for information and public enlightenment, Don Adinuba, stated that the party’s campaigns had rather been recording a huge turn-out of supporters.
He said, “We are the only party holding rallies and the rallies are always drawing huge crowds.
“The other parties are not serious; they are rather timid and cowardly; courage is one fundamental difference between Soludo and Obiano on the one hand and the other politicians on the other.
“Soludo was attacked on March 31 and, as a result, he lost three police officers; still he powered on,” Adinuba stated.
He alleged that APC and its candidate, Senator Uba, were waiting for either President Muhammadu Buhari or Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to come to the state before they could flag off their campaigns, so that their presence would boost the popularity of the candidate in the election.
He, however, stated that the Presidency had deliberately decided to distance itself from APC in the election, because the duo of Buhari and Osinbajo “consider it immoral to identify with such a person (Senator Uba).”
