Labour Party and its supporters accused Soludo’s administration of dismantling the campaign billboard of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party despite paying for it.
Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State has scolded the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, while describing them as being petty.
Soludo reminded Obi and his supporters that as Anambra State governor, Obi did not allow the LP to campaign at a venue in the state, despite paying for the venue.
SaharaReporters had reported that Labour Party and its supporters accused Soludo’s administration of dismantling the campaign billboard of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party despite paying for it.
Soludo through the Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency, on Saturday pulled down massive billboards of Obi, located at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Temporary Site Flyover alongside that of the party’s candidate for the Anambra Central Senatorial District in the February elections, Chief Victor Umeh.
In August 2022, the Anambra State government placed a public announcement directing presidential candidates to pay N10 million, senatorial candidates to pay N7 million, House of Representatives candidates to pay N5 million and state House of Assembly candidates to pay N1 million as campaign fees before mounting any billboard or poster.
However, despite complying with the payment, Soludo's government went ahead to remove pulled down the campaign billboards.
It had been reported that angry reactions have continued to trail the incident.
Meanwhile Soludo in an interview on Channels TV on Thursday evening, said that his administration had on two occasions okayed government’s premises for them (LP and Obi) to mount their billboards free of charge.
He said, “It is needless for me to be reacting to the ranting by some people who have alleged that the state has been frustrating their presidential campaigns in the state.
“The Anambra State Signage Agency has sufficiently dealt with that.
“It is on record that I have on two occasions granted government properties to the Labour Party without paying a penny. Nobody has done that before.
“Peter Obi, as a governor of Anambra State didn’t even allow the Labour Party to freely campaign in Anambra. He denied them the venue they paid for. But I have allowed him and his party to use government properties free of charge twice.”
Soludo said the problem with Obi’s party was that they failed to play by the rules by mounting billboards without meeting the necessary conditions.
“The other day, they had their campaigns in Onitsha. They have their billboards all over the place. The point is, when you fail to play by the rule, by putting up billboards without making payment for such, of course, the signage agency will come after you.
“The problem is that they want to exercise a mentality of entitlement but we can’t continue to give them everything for free.
“It is on record that no party, the PDP, APC and others are complaining. Why only the Labour Party?
“I may have some faults as a human being, but being petty is not definitely one of them. The Labour Party has no reason to complain whatsoever.”