PRESS RELEASE

Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN) Abia chapter has cautioned politicians against taking actions or making utterances that would heat up the polity and stoke violence in a build-up to 2023 general elections.

The online media body gave the warning in a statement jointly signed by the State Chairman of OMPAN chief Paddy Anyatonwu and the Secretary Steve Unegbu on Sunday,June 26,2022 and made available to Newsmen in Umuahia the state capital.

The media practitioners appealed to political leaders and their followers particularly in Abia state to play politics with decorum and not to see the forthcoming general elections as a matter of do-or-die.

They urged politicians and their followers to focus on how to deliver democratic dividends to Abians and not to conduct themselves in a manner that might cause violence in the State.

“The era of political violence is long gone in the State. We don’t want anybody under the guise of a political aspiration to create a crisis in the State.

“Abia state Politicians and their followers must be mindful of the actions and utterances they make,especially in the media and public places so as not to set the State on fire.

“We know that some politicians are hell-bent on disrupting the peace the good people of Abia State have been enjoying by heating up the polity.

“Campaigns should be issue-based and should not be attack on persons or political parties. We should imbibe the spirit of children of God as the state is named God’s own state.

“As the watchdog of the society,Abia OMPAN will not relent in playing her primary role of speaking out against actions or Utterances capable of causing political instability in the state,”the statement concluded.

See the full statement from the OMPAN Abia below :

OMPAN CAUTIONS POLITICIANS AGAINST CAUSING POLITICAL INSTABILITY IN ABIA STATE

The Online Media Practitioners Association of Nigeria (OMPAN) Abia chapter hereby cautioned politicians against taking actions or making utterances that will heat up the polity and stoke violence in a build-up to 2023 general elections.

The media Practitioners are appealing to political leaders and their followers particularly in Abia State to play politics with decorum and not to see the forthcoming general elections as a matter of do-or-die.

OMPAN is further urging politicians and their followers to focus on how to deliver democratic dividends to Abians and not to conduct themselves in a manner that might cause violence in the State.

We want to state that the era of political violence is long gone in the State. We don’t want anybody under the guise of a political aspiration to create a crisis in the State.

Abia state Politicians and their followers must be mindful of the actions and utterances they make,especially in the media and public places so as not to set the State on fire.

We know that some politicians are hell-bent on disrupting the peace the good people of Abia State have been enjoying by heating up the polity.

Campaigns should be issue-based and should not be attack on persons or political parties. We should imbibe the spirit of children of God as the state is named God’s own state.

As the watchdog of the society,Abia OMPAN will not relent in playing her primary role of speaking out against actions or Utterances capable of causing political instability in this state.

Signed:

Chief Paddy Anyatonwu
Chairman OMPAN Abia State .

Steve Unegbu
Secretary