Labour Party’s (LP’S) governorship candidate in Abia State, Dr. Alex Otti, has promised that the planned rally at Ngwa High School, Aba will hold today as planned despite a call by the government for the party to change its venue.
The party had announced that its presidential candidate and his running mate, Peter Obi and Yusuf Datti, including other national officers, would also be at the event where Otti would present his manifesto.
Commissioner for Post Basic Education Israel Mark, in a letter he signed yesterday, which was addressed to the state Chairman of the LP and copied Abia State Director, Department of State Services (DSS) and Abia State Commissioner of Police, said the government advised that the party should seek alternative venues to avoid disruption of academic activities.
He said LP should look for another venue or seek another date when students would not be in school, for its event, adding that the party should be aware that public and private schools, including Ngwa High School, Aba, are in session.
Mark said it would be wrong to “set this bad precedent of chasing away our hard working students and their teachers in order to hold political rallies that will not only disrupt academic activities, but will also predispose school properties to vandalism.”
