Kwara APC governorship candidate AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has rejected
suggestions by the state government that his campaign slogan, “Otoge”
(enough is enough) could spark political unrest or suspicions in the
state.
In a statement made available to our correspondent in
Kwara on Sunday, AbdulRazaq said the campaign slogan was properly vetted
and approved by the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria
(APCON) which he insisted was the only statutory and non-partisan body
that should do so.
“Our OTOGE slogan simply means that our
people have had enough and are desirous of change through the ballot
box,” adding that the government was only jittery and trying to
crackdown on the opposition.
“We are surprised and disappointed
at the action of the Kwara State Government and Kwara State Signage and
Advertisement Agency (KWASAA) over their threat to pull down our
billboards and campaign banners or posters that have this slogan.
“If,
despite their underwhelming performance in the past 14 years, the Kwara
State Government and its patrons do not find their slogan of
‘continuity’ as contemptuous, provocative and utterly insulting to the
people of Kwara State, it is quite annoying for them to complain that
the opposition is saying #Otoge and calling for a change.
“We
totally reject Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s hypocritical statement of
Friday December 7 in which he claimed that our campaign slogan was
capable of pitching people against one another.
“We also reject
KWASAA’s claim that complaints have come from the Emir of Ilorin’s
palace regarding the slogan. These are cheap lies with which our people
are not only familiar but are totally fed up!
“We urge the Kwara
State Government and its agencies to face governance, stop their boring
propaganda and face the unavoidable prospect of being voted out of
office in March 2019, God willing.
“Contrary to the sheer
red-herring by the governor, we are in a better position to advise the
Kwara State Government and the People’s Democratic Party to please
embrace peace, to live and let live.
“We urge independent
government agencies of the Federal Government, including APCON, police,
the department of state security, to continue to be apolitical and
professional in their dealing with politicians.
“Finally, our
campaign has been very peaceful, orderly and issues-based. We promise
that it will continue to be so. But while using this opportunity to
again urge our supporters to eschew every form of violence or disorderly
conducts even in the face of unprovoked attempts to cage the
opposition, we believe that our people have seen enough of deprivations,
mediocre governance and mismanagement of public resources to say it
loud and clear that enough is enough. OTOGE!” the statement read.
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