By Ndahi Marama, Maiduguri
The billboards of candidates of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP, including that of the senatorial candidate for Borno Central and other campaign posters/flags erected on strategic places in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital have been destroyed by people believed to be from the opposition.
The NNPP state chairman, Barrister Mohammed Mustapha, who disclosed this to journalists in Maiduguri also said that his party has petitioned the Borno State Commissioner of Police, Abdu Umar, over the unfortunate incidence.
The petition, a copy of which was made available to newsmen on Tuesday said, “We have strong reasons and evidence to suspect one of our opposition parties, its leaders and their thugs, because similar incident had occured in August 2022 around Bulumkutu area, when we were escorting our presidential candidate, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, to the airport around 5:00 pm, where our vehicles were attacked and damaged by some hired political thugs carrying dangerous weapons.”
The petition stated further, “Reference to the peace accord signed by all political parties in the presence of the Borno State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, and the representatives of traditional rulers and all the recurity representatives in your office in December 2022, I hereby formally present our complaints to your office on the damage and violation of our rights perpetrated on our party, the New Nigerian People’s Party, NNPP, by political party thugs on our campaign billboards, belonging to our Borno Central candidate, Alhaji Attom Mohammed Magira, located on the express road.
“The billboards location started from the Airport junction, Bulumkutu Railway junction, opposite Elkanemi School, opposite Police Headquarters, near Ramat Polytechnic and Polo traffic junction, were all damaged and removed. A total of seven billboards, containing fourteen posters were affected and the remaining posters across the state are not safe, if adequate security is not put in place.”
The petition further stated that “we were denied placing our campaign posters and billboards on street lights and many locations within the state, despite having fully paid all fees and fulfilling all conditions laid down by the Borno State Urban Development Board.”
The NNPP however exercise fear that a level playing ground would not be provided for peaceful, free and fair conduct of the forthcoming elections in the state.
The NNPP therefore assured the Commissioner of Police that its members shall continue to be law abiding and will not be deterred by this breach of peace, because its members respect peaceful coexistence and rule of law.
