A former All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial aspirant in Abia State, Dr Philip Nto, has urged party members and supporters to use their WhatsApp status to campaign for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and other APC candidates ahead of the 2027 elections.
He said the advice followed the outrageous billboard campaign fees slammed on political parties and their candidates by the Abia State Government.
Under the new billboard permit fees, presidential candidates are to cough out N200m, governorship candidates N150m, and senatorial candidates N100m.
Similarly, House of Representatives candidates are to pay N50m, while their House of Assembly counterparts are to cough out N20m.
Dr Nto, a former Commissioner for Finance and Economic Planning in the state, described the fees as outrageous and intended to emasculate opposition candidates by the Labour Party-controlled state government.
He said that although the Signage Department in the Ministry of Finance had a fee for billboards during the time of Gov. T. A. Orji, the amount was just a token.
He regretted that the high permit rates by the Abia State Government were introduced to suffocate the campaign of opposition candidates.
He noted that the consequential results were the destruction of billboards belonging to APC candidates, including that of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu.
Nto said that since even the campaign billboards of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have been vandalised by the agents of the state government, APC members should adopt another lawful strategy to campaign for their candidates.
“I am calling on all APC members and their supporters to henceforth use their WhatsApp status as the campaign billboards,” the former Provost of Abia State College of Education, Technical, Arochukwu, admonished them.
He was optimistic that the use of the WhatsApp status was more effective and efficient in reaching people than even the billboards.
According to him, if an APC member has just 100 persons who view his status daily, imagine the great impact he would make on the campaign to the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR.
“Activate your phone WhatsApp for Tinubu, Eric Opah, our incoming governor, DSP Ben Kalu and other APC candidates and we shall emerge victorious,” the World Bank consultant asserted
.
