SSS, police invade printing press over Aliyu 2015 presidential posters

SECURITY operatives, at the early hours of Saturday, stormed a printing press where posters depicting the 2015 presidential ambition of the Niger State governor, Babangida Aliyu, were being printed.

Findings by Sunday Tribune revealed that acting on a tip-off,  a team of police and State Security Service (SSS) operatives had stormed the press where copies of the A3 size posters were wrapped and billed to be transported  to Abuja and other major towns in Niger State.

It was further gathered that the printing of the posters, believed to have been sponsored by a group known as the Concerned Citizens for Change & Transparency, had bold pictures of the governor with the logo of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The posters simply read “Vote for Change, Chief Servant Babangida Aliyu Mu’azu (Talba Minna) for Presidency 2015. Insha-Allah.”

In his reaction, Governor Aliyu,  at a one-day North Central geopolitical zone security awareness workshop, in Minna, on Saturday, distanced himself from the development.

Aliyu told the audience, which included high-ranking police officers, that he had not printed any poster in connection with the 2015 presidential election. He appealed that should such posters be found, security operatives should not hesitate in destroying them and to ensure the arrest of the sponsors.

He added that the sponsors of such posters did not mean well for the country but were only out to heat up the polity and cause disaffection between him, the party and the presidency.

 “If you see any poster depicting me running for presidency between now and June 2014, please don’t hesitate to remove it. People pick anyone and put posters about them just to cause tension in the country,” he said.

He recalled that he had to order the removal of similar posters of Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State that were placed at strategic spots in Minna, the Niger State capital recently.

He insisted that the time was not right for electioneering campaign ahead of the 2015 presidential election, just as he called for caution among the political class and their teeming followers.

“It is not time yet both in the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP. It is not time for campaigns. I am not a hypothetical person. If God wants me to run for presidency in 2015, I won’t shy away from it. Please help me to remove any poster and report the person pasting it.  If possible, apprehend the individual,” he said.
TRIBUNE