Thugs destroy Ayade's billboards in Cross River
- Suspected political thugs in Cross River state have destroyed the campaign billboards of Governor Ben Ayade and other candidates in the PDP as well the APC
- The APC's governorship candidate in the state, Senator John Owan-Enoh, had previously alleged that his billboards had been destroyed by agents of the state government
- According to the APC publicity secretary in the state, the party would not accept claims and insinuations that it was responsible for the criminal action
The campaign billboards of Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River state, were among those destroyed by suspected political thugs in the state.
According to Punch, the billboards were destroyed barely three days following the warning against such by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the state, Senator John Owan-Enoh.
Legit.ng gathers that some others belonging to other candidates of the ruling party in the state were also destroyed, apart from those belonging to Ayade.
Owan-Enoh had alleged that his billboards had been destroyed by agents of the state government and asked Ayade to order them to stop or be ready for a street protest by his party supporters.
READ ALSO: How soldiers beat us, collected our phones over theft allegation - Siblings
His warning seems not to have been heeded as people suspected to be supporters of both political parties went ahead to destroy more APC billboards and posters as well as those of the governor.
In a press statement, the APC publicity secretary in the state, Bassey Ita, stated: “The attention of the APC has been drawn to media reports credited to some officials of the PDP, which attempt to deny the involvement of its paid agents in the destruction of our party candidates’ billboards and posters in parts of the state.
“This denial is, in our consideration, spurious and a cheap attempt by the PDP to exonerate itself from the evil and criminal agenda it is already known to perpetrate.
“We wish to emphasise here that much as this inglorious practice is inconsistent with the existing laws guiding the freedom of parties to campaign, using paid advert spaces, we will, as a law abiding party, resist such attempts to further pull down our billboards and posters by hired agents of the PDP.
“We will therefore not accept such spurious claims and insinuations that a faction of our party is responsible for this criminal and evil exploit as currently made by the PDP.”
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigeria’s #1 news app
The PDP's publicity secretary in the state, Egbung Odama, when contacted, however, said he was not in town and had not seen the defaced billboards. He promised to speak on the matter later.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the police in Lagos state said they had arrested six persons allegedly involved in the destruction of campaign posters of an undisclosed political party and replacing them with another.
The spokesman of the police command in the state, CSP Chike Oti, confirmed the arrest in a statement.
NAIJ.com (naija.ng) -> Legit.ng: We have updated to serve you better!
Election-2019: (Don't) mark your calendar - on Legit TV:
Source: Legit.ng
