By CHARLES ONYEKWERE, Abakaliki

The Ebonyi state government has placed a ₦5million fine on the ruling All progressives Congress (APC) for using campaign posters to deface critical infrastructure across the state.

The state government added that failure of the party to comply with the fixed fine into government coffers before on December 31 2022, risk being made to pay ₦50million as penalty.

The state Commissioner for information and state orientation, Mr Uchenna Orji, who stated this in a statement he issued to Journalists on Saturday in Abakaliki.

According to Orji, the Governor, Engr. David Umahi is saddened by the continuous pasting of posters, saying that such fine will extend to other political parties.

Affected infrastructure including electric poles, Meridian, concrete road, flyover bridges and other critical infrastructure of the State by all the Political Parties in the State including All Progressives Congress (APC),People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

“When APC flagged-off their Presidential and Governorship Campaigns in the State, they littered the infrastructure with posters and that made other Political Parties to follow suit. Today, most of the critical Infrastructure have been littered with posters against the Laws of the State Government and the Executive Order regarding pasting of posters and billboards in the State.

“Consequently, the Governor of Ebonyi State has decided to use his Politcal Party APC to set example and as such, APC is hereby fined the sum of Five Million Naira (5,000,000.00) for contravention of the Laws and Executive Order of Ebonyi State.

“APC must pay the money to the State IGR account and obtain IGR receipt and publicize the payment in all media platforms including social media before 31th December, 2022 or risk being made to pay a default fee of Fifty Million Naira (50,000,000.00).

The statement further directed APC to within the period remove all the posters and make good the infrastructure before 31th December, 2022.

“The Governor has decided to forgive all other Political Parties and appeal to them to remove all their posters on all the critical infrastructure before 31th December, 2022 and desist forthwith from defacing our facilities or face similar penalty like APC, Ebonyi State.

“The Governor appeals to all Political Parties not to take this benevolence as a sign of weakness on the side of Government as Government will seal off all Secretariat/campaign offices of such parties for their failure to remove their posters and or desist from continuous pasting of posters on such critical Infrastructure.

While banning all street campaigns and directed all Local Government Area Chairmen, Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Commissioner for Education and Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Market Development to process all the applications of any Political Party including APC that wants to use the public facilities for their campaigns.

“Any political party that is denied such opportunity and which has complied with the Laws of the State and the Executive Order must report to the Governor of Ebonyi State, the Commissioner of Police, or the State Director State Security Service within 24 hours for immediate approval.