Nicholas Ukachukwu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Anambra, was recently confronted and harassed by a group of men in Abuja.
Clips showed the men blocking Ukachukwu as he made to leave the Transcorp Hilton hotel in Abuja.
“You’re running for governor and owing people. You’re owing us N1 billion. Pay us our money,” a man in the crowd yelled repeatedly.
“You should be able to talk to us, no matter how big you think you can be. You should honour us,” another man said.
“I don’t talk to people I don’t know. I don’t like what’s going on here,” Ukachukwu responded as hotel staff pleaded that phone cameras be lowered and turned off.
Reacting to the viral videos, Chido Obidiegwu, director of media and communications of the Ukachukwu-Ekwunife campaign council, accused Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra, of instigating the incident.
“The nature of the attack from the intelligence available to the campaign organisation is to justify the false statement made by Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo at the inauguration of his campaign organisation,” Obidiegwu said in a statement on Monday.
“Prof Soludo, who has lately been in the media for bad reasons, derogatorily described our candidate as a land grabber.”
The campaign spokesman alleged that the governor released funds through one of his commissioners to sponsor individuals who would confront Ukachukwu at public events.
“The brief was simple: ‘Shout land grabber, Oga where is my land, Oga refund my money’,” he said.
The campaign organisation said it has petitioned the inspector general of police (IGP) over the alleged plot.
“We will deal with anyone who dares to attack our candidate with false allegations of land grabbing just to justify the lies of Prof Soludo,” Obidiegwu said.
He added that Soludo should focus on insecurity in the state instead of engaging in “false propaganda and blackmail”.
Contacted for a response, Christian Aburime, Soludo’s chief press secretary, told journalists that his principal had nothing to do with the incident.
“That is a joke of course. It did not come as a surprise because there are antecedents of this kind of habit of owing. My principal should therefore be left out of this issue please,” Aburime said.
