Delta State Commissioner of Information who also the spokesperson of the Atiku/Okowa Presidential Campaign Council, Mr. Charles Aniagwu together with Mr. Oliseh Ifeajika, the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, has scolded Prof. Pat Utomi for telling a lie to the media stations and on social media alleging that the Delta State government is preventing the Labour Party from using the state public venues for their campaign.
Mr. Aniagwu made this known while addressing journalists in Asaba on Tuesday.
He said the idea of Prof. Utomi lying to Nigerians is not what the country needs at this point expressing that every political party is free to campaign anywhere they feel they want to campaign as long they did not infringe on the rights of any other persons.
According to him Senate Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa and Atiku Abubakar believe that whoever wants to campaign to seek people to support their aspirations should be free to do so, claiming that is what they have been doing in Delta.
Expressing he said “You can see nobody has removed any of their posters pasted anywhere, all the billboards are allowed to be placed wherever they are. You can see the offices of political parties even when you leave the government house, about two houses from the government house is a campaign office of one of the political parties. The next building is a campaign office of APC even before you get to that of the PDP, the closest campaign office in this state is that of the opposition to the government house and we never made any law or take any steps to stop them from using those infrastructures because we believe that in a democracy, people should be free to exercise their rights and aspirations without having to infringe on the rights of other Nigerians.
“So we needed to make this clarification because it is very-very bad that Prof. Pat Utomi thought that we will fall into that trap of not officially writing us and even until this moment I challenge him to show us a letter written to the Secretary to the state government demanding for any venue, and for him to produce any letter telling him that we will not give them.”
“Let him also deny that it was not on Sunday morning that they spoke to me that they needed to carry out a campaign on Monday. The man who called me said his name is Kelly Ajufo, he claimed he is over 70 years old, and pleaded with me that it was their fault that they sent somebody but the person could not deliver the message as when he was sent. Let him come out and say that is not what he told me on Sunday morning, a day less than 24 hours before the campaign. The man was pleading and I asked him how can you be making this demand for something that you want to do tomorrow, what if somebody else has taken that place?”
“Of course, all of you know that our stadium is under renovation immediately after the sports festival because we needed to also bring it back which is why we said we’ll continue to maintain our facilities. We needed to bring it back to the state where it could be also available for other functions, if you also go to the Cenotaph where we are also been very busy but in this case what they demanded is the Arcade.”
“That Kelly who called me on Sunday if truly he is above 70 years old, should also be able to say the truth that the interaction between me and him was short because he was pleading that we should forgive them for not making any application. He even suggested that we give them anticipatory approval while he makes steps to go and bring a letter which I told him don’t worry we will give you, let me assume that this phone call becomes your application.”
Again, the commissioner said they went to the extent of asking them not to pay, and instead of them writing a letter to commend them and ask another state to do the same, they are busy telling Nigerians that the Delta state government prevented them from using the venue they requested for.
“Now, how did they use the place they use? How did they have access to use the Arcade, did anybody chase them out of the Arcade, or is the arcade in Ondo?
“It is too bad because if it is some children on the street that did such, we can say they don’t understand, Prof. Pat Utomi and members of his party should know that our desire to build Nigeria should not be on the nails of lies and blackmail. Our desire to build Nigeria must be based on truth because if they claimed that they have character and the beginning of the display of character is to tell truth to Nigeria.”
“The reason why we allow everyone to come there and do their campaign is that we are very much on the ground, one because Sen. Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has performed very well and he is in touch with the people in the grassroots. Also, we are on the ground because the PDP before now has already become the indigene of Delta State and he’s not in a hurry to fly away from this state.”
“Even if tomorrow they want to come and campaign in front of the government house we will give them. For any political party that wants to come and campaign in Delta, the floor and everywhere are open so long as that venue is available we will not prevent them as they are coming to campaign and it will not change any of those things. Number one, we are confident that Deltans believe that the PDP has done so well in the last 24 years and so we are not disturbed by those antics.”
“Please I want to use you to advise Prof. Pat Utomi and individuals like him not to deride our democracy by telling lies to Nigerians and beginning to write history in such a way that will not reflect the reality because as a professor, he’s supposed to be believable. Even if it’s a tweet from him, the International community will record it, if it were to be a beer parlor discussion, we would have ignored it but coming from a professor it will be assumed he is saying the truth.”
“For us, we will continue to interact with our people, we have made a promise to continue our government process even till the 28 of May this year. The governor even though he is engaged with national campaigns has always been around to continue with project delivery. Tomorrow by the special grace of God we will proceed to Warri North where we’ll be commissioning the ‘Oge floating market’ which is the first of its kind in the history of West Africa. A market sitting on top of the water and the national chairman of our great party will be around to commission it and thereafter, there are several other projects in the creeks that we will be commissioning.
“The other day we told you that the APC candidate is not even in touch with the people in his community let alone those in the creeks. Assuming he is in touch, he would have known that in the creeks there is a light wonder of the world called the Oge floating market, he’s not aware because when he was campaigning he said nothing has happened in the creeks and I am sure our brothers from the creeks will be laughing at him. Maybe he needs to visit the creeks to understand that there is a very good amount of transformation that has taken place” the commissioner said.
In addition, the Chief Press Secretary, Ifeajika said that Prof. Utomi was unfamiliar with the politics of the state as he neither traveled home nor knew his polling unit and Ward.
He said that APC, the main opposition party in the state, flagged off campaign at Warri Township Stadium few weeks ago.
