These are trying times for Governor Sullivan Chime and his group as they fight to have firm grip over the leadership of their party in Enugu. Though the governor and his group are trying real hard, but it does seem things are not quite going their way as only recently, some articles in the Vanguard Newspapers have so haunted and vexed the Governor’s camp that they had to hurriedly mop up every copy of Vanguard off the streets of Enugu. Precisely the November 26 edition.
Like an army, the governor’s agents combed the city of Enugu, buying every copy of Vanguard in sight, well, not only did they buy the whole thing, they went as far as paying N1000 per a copy of Vanguard, which ordinarily sells for N150 per copy.
The action of the the state authorities was evidently connected to a news feature published yesterday entitled, Enugu 2015: The debacle of parallel leadership.
The story was a focus on the recent travails of the faction of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, led by Governor Sullivan Chime arising from that faction’s failure to participate in the November 1, 2014 ward congresses of the party organised by the Elder David Aja-led leadership of the party.
The development in the party, according to the feature piece has led to doubts on the prospects of 2015 election aspirants affiliated to the governor. The seemingly provocative article which was a review of the developments in the state was, however, stopped from mass circulation with the forced purchase of the edition from the newspaper distributors.
Brace yourself for more, besides mopping up the November 26 edition of the Vanguard, the Vanguard edition of last Friday, November 21, 2014 which reported stories on Enugu and had a feature, Governors also cry was also mopped off the streets of Enugu by the governor’s agents.
Lately, it has been the practice of the authorities in the state to buy up copies of Vanguard with reports perceived not to be favorable to them.
Yesterday, some readers who brought the newspaper from outside the state were able to make Xeroxed copies of the feature story which sold for as much as N300 in some places in the state
