The chairmanship candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Dr. Obinna Simon has said that the campaign councils of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and African Democratic Congress (ADC) do not threaten his ambition to win the council election.
The election is slated for February 21 dor the six area council.
The APC in constituting a 137 campaign council, while the Presidential aspirant for the ADC, Peter Obi is leading the campaign of the ADC candidate.
The candidate of of APC is Hon. Christopher Maikalangu, while that of ADC is Dr. MO.
The SDP candidate seaking to journalists on Sunday in Abuja said he is the most qualified candidate with a vision to add value in the AMAC.
Speaking, he said, l have been involved in politics for over 20 years, though maybe not from Abuja, but of course I’ve been involved in politics for close to 20 years. AMAC has enormous resources that the state at which it is today should have been far gone because of poor management.
“Now as AMAC chairman, transparency and accountability is one of my key cardinals. Many of you in the media here knows I was in the comedy industry before contesting this election. You knew how popular I was in the entire country, even in diaspora. You also know that there have never been reported one single scandal about me. Even though what I was doing was quite sensitive, mimicking a sitting president that if you were not told, you would think he is the one. Even if I’m on phone with you, you would think that he is the one speaking to you.
“But I have never for once defrauded anyone or used the same talent to shortchange anybody. I was one of the people that DSS were watching closely, more than anybody. Every move I make, every call I make, but they have never found me wanting for one day, for that eight years.
“Now what does that tell you? That told you that that is my character. You cannot pretend for eight years. You cannot hide who you are for eight years.
“It’s impossible. It will show. I’m able to also tell you that in my entire life, I have never been convicted of any crime.
“I have never entered cell in my entire life. Not one day. I have never for one second entered cell or find myself in the case of you have done this or you have done that.
“I’ve never gone to court to defend myself for one day. So this has necessitated me to tell you that accountability and transparency is very important to me. So as AMAC chairman, I and my team will publish the federal allocation, federal government sense.
“We will publish it so that everybody will know that this is what came in this month. The IGR in the month will also be published so that people will know the resources that are coming in and what we are also using the resources to achieve. We will not mismanage the council funds, just like we are seeing today.
“All of us know that currently they are investigating the six area councils, over 100 billion naira mismanagement of funds. That will not happen during my time.”
Speaking on the area of his concern, he said, Education: As many of you know, I was teaching before even joining Comedy. I taught for over seven years in primary and secondary school.
“I taught some of my students then currently undergoing their master’s. Some are doing their PhD as we speak. They are my students.
“And that is why I shed tears when I went around the schools in AMAC, even though the school where I taught was a private school. But I shed tears because I found students sitting on the bare floor receiving lessons. Who could believe that these schools are under FCT? They are under AMAC.
“And that is why even the day I made my declaration, I made it very, very clear that I will, on assuming office, I would declare state of emergency on education in AMAC. I made it very clear. It’s out there.
“Schools were on strike in AMAC for over five months. And then they patched it up. They resumed.
“And as I speak to you again now, they are on strike again. So as a teacher, the welfare of teachers is very key in education. It’s when somebody is comfortable that you teach children very well. So education is very important to me.
“Teachers should be rest assured that their welfare will be well taken care of. We will also retrain those teachers who are not professional teachers. Some of them took teaching job because there is no job.
“So the only job I see is teaching. No problem. We will train you to become a professional in that field.”
The SDP candidate also said that the candidate of APC should be held responsible should anything happened to him or his supporters.
He said, “This morning I got a video where a stakeholder, a chieftain of the APC, was seen threatening voters, especially the non-indigenous voters.
“Threatening them that if they dare vote for SDP or ADC, that they should pack their things and leave. The video is there. I’m going to share it later on my pages for awareness and to also call the security agencies to understand that whatever happens to me, my family, or my supporters, that individual should be held responsible.
“The candidate of the APC should be held responsible. Because I do not see where you make such kind of threat in a civil society, in a civil community, in a civil world like this. It’s a contest.”
