The Commissioner of Police in Abia, Mr Chris Ezike, has accused “major” political parties in the state of being responsible for the destruction of campaign billboards.
Ezike told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Aba on Tuesday that the command had taken measures to tackle the situation to avoid possible clashes.
He warned that such destruction would no longer be tolerated, and regretted that politicians were hiring thugs specifically for such purpose.
“From our findings, all politicians are guilty of this attitude. They employ miscreants to do that in the wee hours. The miscreants remove posters and destroy billboards.
“We have a meeting of Abia State Consultative Committee on Election tomorrow (Wednesday). We hope to address the issue there,” he said.
The police commissioner cautioned against violence and thuggery during and after the election, saying that there were rules that must be respected.
“The rules are clear; nobody has the right to destroy anybody’s billboards, or engage in violence and thuggery.
“Two cases of campaign billboards destruction have been reported to the police and are under investigation.
“One happened at Nkporo, Ohafia Local Government Area, while the other happened at Isiala at Ngwa North Local Government Areas,” he said. (NAN)