PDP: Presidency Disowning Okpebholo’s Billboard for Tinubu in 2027 Vindicates Us

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has said the presidency Disowning Governor Monday Okpebholo’s billboard campaigns for Tinubu ahead of 2027 election was a vindication of the party’s earlier position that the move amounted to a violation of the electoral law.

The presidency through the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, yesterday, chided those mounting billboards with the image of the president and vice-president ahead of 2027 to desist because such action was a violation  of the nation’s electoral laws.

In the statement, Onanuga stressed that in as much as the president and his deputy appreciated the teeming party loyalists, it should also register in their consciousness that doing so would not only confer undue advantage on the two most senior public servants, but that the Electoral Acts forbade premature campaigns ahead of elections, warning further that such actions could erode the credibility of the democratic process.

In a statement in Benin City, titled: “Presidency Disclaims 2027 Campaign Billboards Nationwide,” and signed by the party Publicity Secretary, Chris Nehikhare, and made available to journalists, declared that presidency’s position marked a major blow to Okpebholo’s attempts to curry favour with President Bola Tinubu through “reckless and unlawful political grandstanding.”

The statement further read: “The Edo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had earlier raised the alarm in a statement titled: ‘Okpebholo’s Launch of 2027 Presidential Campaigns for Tinubu in Edo: An Insult, an Affront to the Constitution’.

“The Presidency’s intervention clearly validates our concerns and exposes the deceitful tactics of the Edo APC, which has shown a complete disregard for the nation’s electoral laws. Their antics have not only embarrassed Edo people but have now drawn a firm rebuke from the very leadership they were trying to impress.

“We now await the response of the Edo State Government to this direct disapproval from the Presidency. As we previously noted, Section 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 clearly states: ‘The period of campaigning in public by every political party shall commence 150 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that day.”

“The Edo PDP remains committed to defending constitutional order and protecting the integrity of our democracy against desperate and unlawful manipulation by the APC.”