PROVOCATION! AKSG Bars Erection Of Nsima Ekere's Billboard... Market Women Join The Fray
By UbongAbasi Ise
“On the night of Sunday, October 14, 2018, we were informed that welders had moved into the market to mount the PDP and Mr. Emmanuel's campaign advertisement materials on our billboard. We dismissed it as a huge joke because we believed that there are still some sensible people in government who would counsel against such impunity. We were rather shocked when our team discovered in the morning of Monday, October 15, 2018 that finishing work and painting had started on the unipole by totally strange persons. Our men who complained about the theft were briefly detained and released by officers from the Area 'C'Crime Unit. Thereafter, we reported the matter to the State Police Command who stepped in to investigate. Both parties were immediately counselled to stop work until the ownership of the board was established and all issues in contention were tabled, hence a meeting was scheduled with the parties concerned for 10.00 am the next day.
The feud between the Akwa Ibom State government led by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC, over the siting of Obong (Dr.) Nsima Ekere's campaign billboards in Uyo has taken a dangerous twist as Akpan Andem market women were said to have been co-opted by the PDP government into the saga for the purpose of protesting against the erection of the Nsima Ekere's billboard in Akpan Andem market, a situation which led to the spate of war of words from the two rivaled political parties.
In an electronic statement released yesterday by the APC State Publicity Secretary, Nkereuwem Enyongekere, alarm was raised with the warning that any protest by the traders and market women against the party's billboard was not the legitimate opinion of the traders and whatever protest staged in the market would be procured with threats, blackmail and heavy government funding.
However, when our correspondent got to the location of the market yesterday where the demonstration was scheduled to take place, there were no protesting women found on ground. Few traders that spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said there was no event of protest in the market. Although pictures of alleged market women with placards demonstrating have surfaced in the media, it was not clear at the time of filing this report whether the event actually took place at the location or elsewhere in Uyo, the capital city.
The APC, in a second press statement released yesterday which was signed by its State publicity secretary, expressed shock at what it described as Governor Udom Emmanuel-led government's efforts at falsifying and distorting accounts in a bid to commandeer a billboard erected by the APC at Akpan Andem Market.
“We are shocked by the Governor Udom Emmanuel-led government's efforts at characteristically falsifying and distorting the accounts of its failed attempt to commandeer a three-faced unipole billboard erected by our party at the Akpan Andem Market in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The billboard was erected in strict compliance with due process, which includes obtaining valid approvals from the appropriate authority and payment of all statutory fees to the State Government's agents,” the statement reads.
APC further narrated how the State Commissioner for Environment, Dr. Iniobong Essien and Chairman of Uyo Local Government Elder Imoh Okon made attempt to take over the billboard belonging to the party.
“On the night of Sunday, October 14, 2018, we were informed that welders had moved into the market to mount the PDP and Mr. Emmanuel's campaign advertisement materials on our billboard. We dismissed it as a huge joke because we believed that there are still some sensible people in government who would counsel against such impunity. We were rather shocked when our team discovered in the morning of Monday, October 15, 2018 that finishing work and painting had started on the unipole by totally strange persons. Our men who complained about the theft were briefly detained and released by officers from the Area 'C'Crime Unit. Thereafter, we reported the matter to the State Police Command who stepped in to investigate. Both parties were immediately counselled to stop work until the ownership of the board was established and all issues in contention were tabled, hence a meeting was scheduled with the parties concerned for 10.00 am the next day.
“In spite of this however, the State Commissioner for Environment, Dr Iniobong Essien and Chairman of Uyo Local Government Elder Imoh Okon, led thugs and a team of heavily armed Policemen to the market at about 7.00 pm to continue work and install Governor Udom's materials on the billboard paid for and erected by us. It took the intervention of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) to persuade the people and Environment Commissioner, Dr Iniobong Essien, to stop the daylight robbery by the State Government at about 1.00 am,” the party accounts.
The APC also slammed the PDP Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong over his statement released on Tuesday, maintaining that he cannot mask the truth that this government is trying to take over a private property that it has no right to.
“The traders at the market who witnessed the actions of the past few days know who the aggressor is. The infantile tales-by-moonlight tissues of lies from the PDP Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong, cannot mask the truth that this government is trying to take over a private property that it has no right to. The incredulous movie-like scene scripted in the opening paragraph of the PDP account is clearly symptomatic of the antics of the State Government in enacting make-belief scenarios to deceive members of the public and mask its failings in governance,” said the APC.
Meanwhile, the duo of Dr Iniobong Essien, the state Environment Commissioner and Elder Imoh Okon, the Chairman of Uyo Local Government council had been invited by the State Command of the Nigerian Police Force for investigation in an attempt to put an end to the crisis, The Sensor learnt.
©The Sensor Newspaper
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