Anambra State Governor Charles Soludo has accused the Labour Party and its presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, of pettiness.
Soludo said it was unfortunate that Obi and LP could allege high-handedness against his administration, which on two occasions okayed government’s premises for them to mount their billboards free of charge.
The governor, who assumed the national leadership of the All Progressives Grand alliance (APGA) last Saturday, made this claim while being featured yesterday on Channels Television Politics Today.
Also, Soludo said he would in a few days officially write the Federal Government on his call for the release of the leader of the Independent People of Biafra(IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu.
Reacting to the allegation of intolerance the LP made against him, Soludo, 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.”
Soludo said Obi when he was the governor of the state didn’t allow LP to use public property in the state even after the latter had paid.
“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.”
Soludo, who had a few days ago called on the Federal Government to release Kanu said he was delighted over the Minster of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami’s reaction to it.
The governor said: “The Federal Government will in a few days’ time receive a letter to guarantee Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the IPOB. This is not a personal matter. It is not about Charles Soludo; it is about the lives, security and prosperity of the entire Southeast.
We need to be serious about this. We want this election to go peacefully in the Southeast. We want everybody to participate. “We want peace and security to return. We want long-term transformation and for the Southeast to become very secure and prosperous, we need some stakeholders around the table.
“We are doing a lot by deploying a non-kinetic approach. We can’t have sustainable prosperity if we don’t have sustainable security.
“ For this reason, I will continue to push with other leaders in the Southeast and all men and women of good intentions will join in this call.
“It is either they grant Nnamdi Kanu a conditional release in line with the court judgment, or grant him administrative bail.
“ I am prepared to provide a surety to host him (Kanu) in the Government Lodge here in Anambra and provide him whenever he is required. I think this should be very straightforward to all of us.
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