Four persons suspected to be political thugs hired by a chieftain of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APC) and apprehended for allegedly vandalizing bill boards of governorship candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu state, Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi , have been remanded in prison custody.
They were arraigned by the Police following their arrest last Thursday night for allegedly vandalizing bill boards and other outdoor posts of Hon. Ugwuanyi.
The suspects were arraigned on Friday and remanded in prison in the state capital.
They suspects are Vitalis Akadinwata, Akwu Uchenna, Okoli Obumneme and Osondu Uchenna. The Enugu PDP Campaign Organization had in a statement Friday issued by the director of Media and Publicity of the campaign organization, Mr. Chukwudi Achife, accused an APC chieftain of hiring the suspects, an accusation denied by Chief Okey Ezea , who is the APC governorship candidate in the state.
PDP in the state had reacted swiftly to the development on Friday alleging that the suspects were political thugs hired to deface and damage Ugwuanyi’s posters and it was categorical in accusing the APC in the state of being behind the actions of the suspects just as it informed that the opposition party’s candidate, Chief Okey Ezea, tried to secure their release from police custody to no avail.
Achife’s statement on Friday alleged that “frantic efforts by Ezea who stormed the police station with a retinue of tough-looking men suspected to be political thugs to free the suspects met a brick wall when the Divisional Police Officer refused all his entreaties, insisting that the matter must be properly
investigated”.
The party described the incident as “the height of political brigandage and desperation on the
part of the APC. The APC and its guber candidate in Enugu State cannot make the minutest headway in any ward in Enugu State, talk less of winning the election, so as usual they have resorted to senseless violence as it were.”
“They have tried blackmail and mischievous allegations against the PDP and its candidates and failed woefully. Now the new gimmick is to attack and destroy our bill boards, it is an act that is both puerile
and unintelligent,” he stated.
