5th October, 2021
*Obiano’s Men Reply: “APC propagandists swindling Andy Uba”
There are accusations and denials going on between the camps of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and All Progressives Congress (APC), as Anambra State prepares for the 6 November governorship election. The Senator Andy Uba Governorship Campaign Organisation, (SAUGCO) claimed it had uncovered a covert and obnoxious directive by Governor Willy Obiano, to all civil servants in the state to submit their voters’ cards ahead of the exercise. However, the Obiano’s image-makers waved the accusation off as absolute nonsense.
The governor, according to the Uba camp, allegedly, threatened to withhold the salaries of civil servants who fail to comply by Wednesday, October 6, 2021.
In one of the circulars which convened the directive, a Director in the State’s civil service, Nkechi Adinnuh allegedly requested teachers through the Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB, to submit among others, their National Identification Number(NIN), copy of their last promotion letter and incredibly, voters’ cards.
Thus, the Director, Media and Publicity of SAUGCO, Victor Afam Ogene, wondered why the governor would forcibly seek to coerce the State’s workforce into being part of his illegal schemes during every election.
Ogene wrote: “We state, with every emphasis at our disposal, that a voter’s card is the personal property of the owner of such card, and cannot be forcibly surrendered to any other person, or authority, under whatever guise.
“We recall that four years ago, in the 2017 gubernatorial election in the state, Governor Obiano through the same political subterfuge, deceived Anambra civil servants into surrendering their voters’ card; only to use same to conjure his magical re-election victory, despite his poor governance ratings.
“Today, four years after, Gov. Obiano is back to the same wily ways, working in cahoots with some nefarious staffers of the Independent National Election Commission, INEC to attempt a brazen subversion of the desire of ndi Anambra to freely elect their own leader.
“We, therefore, call on INEC, the Department of State Security, DSS and other relevant security agencies to forestall the plan to clone the voters’ card of Anambra civil servants.
“We wish to enjoin the people of Anambra state, particularly teeming supporters of the All Progressives Congress, APC not to give in to the brute tactics of the governor.
“From assurances gotten from INEC and the security agencies, it is illegal for anyone to hand over his or her voter’s card to a third party, particularly within days to an election, as anyone caught doing so stands the risk of being arrested and made to face the law.
“We wish to reassure the people of Anambra state, especially civil servants who have had to grit under Gov. Obiano’s unorthodox policies, that their day of redemption is near, when an APC government led by Senator Uba will restore the glory and pride of the workers.”
However, Obiano’s men considered the above as the worst form of lies from the pit of hell. C. Don Adinuba, Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment told PMNEWS last night that APC Propagandists “are Swindling Andy Uba.”
Adinuba said both the Anambra State branch of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the AUGC) “have been hiring all manner of propagandists to help, to use their language, ‘launder the image’ of the APC supposed candidate in the November 6 gubernatorial election in the state.” Arising out of the total absence of a programme of action or vision for Anambra people or even personal accomplishments to sell, the propagandists, as Adinuba put it, “have been making statements which are just infra dig.”
The Commissioner continued: “This afternoon the propagandists issued a press statement claiming that Governor Willie Obiano has directed all civil servants to submit their permanent voter’s cards (PVCs) to him. How all civil servants in the state can personally and directly hand over their voters’ cards to the governor is a conundrum which only these funny propagandists can resolve. The so-called directive or circular has neither reference number nor date. Of course, the propagandists could not reproduce the alleged directive. All this shows that the press statement is lower than ordinary fake news.
“The flurry of bizarre statements emanating daily from both the Anambra State APC and the Andy Ubah Governorship Campaign Organization owes to only one thing: a desperation to swindle a fortune from the supposed APC gubernatorial candidate while the electioneering campaign lasts.
“ There is a slogan which APC operatives in the state use to seduce materially-minded individuals, namely, ‘Andy dey pay’. In fairness to the operatives, the first set of politicians who defected to the APC were well paid, but later defectors have been shortchanged. The new APC propagandists were hired on the basis of ‘pay as you write’. This is to say, they are rewarded on the basis of stories they write daily, regardless of verisimilitude, that is, if the stories resemble true events or not.
“ Consequently, the propaganda operatives have daily been churning out all kinds of statements making outlandish allegations against the state administration. What is more, they often allege that the administration has been giving mindboggling amounts to an endless list of people to advance its cause. What they intend to achieve with these actions is to compel the supposed APC gubernatorial candidate to fork out huge sums to them. It is unfortunate that Senator Andy Uba has yet to discover this trick by his publicists. It is surprising that he hasn’t learnt lessons from his experience with certain communication practitioners who scammed him of huge sums when he contested to be the Anambra State governor in 2007.”