Ngora Police 'detain' candidate's poster

An election poster of Stella Apolot Isodo, a candidate for the Ngora District Woman Member of Parliament seat, has been "detained" after it was found hanging at a shed built by her rival, Jacqueline Amongin.

Amongin (National Resistance Movement) found Apolot's (Forum for Democratic Change) poster placed under the shed she built for Boda-Boda riders opposite Ngora Fred Carr Hospital gate.

She did not take this insult lightly. She stopped and told her driver to pluck it off and take it to Kobuku Police post.

According to boda boda riders at the stage, Amongin was furious because her poster was not in the shed, yet that of Apolot was.

"When she found Apolot's poster hanging at her shed, she accused me of keeping her opponent's posters there and yet I am not a boda rider," Stephen Okello, a fuel vendor operating near the shed, said.

The officer in charge of the Police post, James Erimu, said: "It is true the poster was brought here, but we resolved the issue and handed it back."

He said they did not prefer any charges against Apolot.

"In this season, politicians are behaving like co-wives at home. Our role is to receive and guide them," Erimu added.

However, Amongin told New Vision that she was concerned that her poster was kept away from the shed. 

"My poster had been put aside. I tried to tell the youth who were there to have our posters together, but they refused. I told them that the Police would settle the matter," she said.

Apolot said: "Taking my poster to the Police is like dragging me to the Police. It is disappointing."

Ngora Resident District Commissioner Ambrose Onoria urged politicians to concentrate on selling their manifestos to the electorates.

"Putting up posters in people's homes or covering opponents' pictures is prohibited," Onoria advised. However, the boda boda riders said the shed is no longer in Amongin's hands.

Therefore, she cannot order them how to use it. "It is no longer her shed, but ours because we are the ones who keep it clean and protect it as well," Sam Oloit, the chairperson of the boda boda riders of the stage, said.