Ultimatum to Remove Billboard Undemocratic, Dankwambo Campaign Organisation Tells Adamawa

By Segun Awofadeji in Gombe

The Dankwambo Campaign Organisation has described as undemocratic and abuse of process the 24 ultimatum given to it by the Adamawa State Development Board to remove the campaign billboards of the Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, or have it forcefully removed.

In a statement signed by Charles Garkuwa of the Publicity Directorate of the Dankwambo Talban Gombe Support Group and made available to THISDAY Friday in Gombe, the campaign organisation stated that as indigenes of Adamawa State they have the constitutional right to belong to any group of their choice without any fear of intimidation.

According to the statement, the ultimatum given to it is undemocratic for people under the leadership of Adamawa State Governor Jubrila Bindow to ask them to remove the billboard within 24 hours, adding that: “We do believe that the relationship between Governor Dankwambo Talban Gombe with His Excellency Governor Bindow exceeded partisan politics.”

It further stated: “Dankwambo is a second term governor and Bindow is a first term governor of Adamawa State, by virtue of age and by virtue of experience Governor Dankwambo is older than Bindow and the relationship of a friend and a brother are not to be underestimated by anyone whether in the name of politics or otherwise.”

The Dankwambo Campaign Organisation further explained that: “Gombe and Adamawa States are the same thing, the procedure followed by our group to rent a space to place a billboard of His Excellency, Governor Dankwambo Talban Gombe was official.

“The world knows and we the people of Adamawa knows very well the standard procedure on which we build and preach to our group to observe before installing the billboard. We followed all the due process, before even paying for the rent, we went to the local government headquarters in Jimeta to pay for the space. After, we also as a group went to the state development board to pay over a million naira just as a revenue for displaying our billboard but we are surprised to see an ultimatum issued to us that we should remove our billboard within 24 hours if not the state development board will remove it themselves on the order from the above.

“We believe that, it is only the overzealous management of Adamawa State Development Board but not the governor of Adamawa State that is behind it. We believe that the governor is a politician who knows everything and cannot truncate in anyway the democratic processes that made him to be a governor today, as we know he also has personal relationship with Dankwambo.”