The gubernatorial candidate of the Action Alliance (AA), Ozo Jeff Nweke, has berated his fellow candidates over what he described as a campaign of cheap blackmail and calumny amongst one another, contending that it is most despicable for those aspiring to lead Anambra State.

Nweke made this remark in reaction to bickerings among the candidates of the Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) in recent times.

Recall that in the last month, the media space has been heated by a war of words among the three political parties, who have been neck deep in name-calling calling hence deepening the polity.

According to Nweke , this ugly face-off is against the spirit of sportsmanship and fair contest, noting that such a display of name-calling and name-dropping paints a negative picture of the state among the electorates and beyond.

He said, ” The essence of political campaigns shouldn’t be to malign or engage in character assassination or unnecessary altercations with political opponents, but to showcase our developmental plans for the people.

” Campaigns should be issue-based. What are your plans for the security of lives and property? How do you intend to stop kidnappings and killings that have become commonplace in our state?

” How do you intend to tackle the debilitating multiple taxation choking our people to death and stagnating businesses? What are your plans for the education sector, welfare of the people and the state’s economy?

How do you attract investors to come and build industries, employ our youth and improve our revenue base without necessarily taking people to the cleaners in the name of politics?

” These are the issues that ought to dominate our discourse and not name-calling.”

Nweke further said anything contrary to these amounts to politics of bitterness and undue recourse to the gallery, which is not what the people of the state need at this moment in time.

” On our side, we have mapped out very robust programmes on how to rescue Anambra from misrule and put the state on the path of development and progress, which keep unfolding as we meet people in our campaigns.

” I believe there could be different approaches toward the way things are done, but Governor Soludo is trying his best in terms of general development.