Signage agency boss says governorship aspirants are lawless

Chief

Emecheta described the unauthourised display of campaign posters by the aspirants as lawless, saying they had not obeyed the rules or paid the mandatory fees for the display of campaign posters.

He said in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Saturday that it was sad that rather than go to court to contest the regulations as people seeking the number one office in the state, the aspirants decided to violate the rules.

“In fact this poster issue has shown me that some aspirants in the Nov.18 governorship election in Anambra are lawless and people who cannot be trusted with anything.

“There is a law in this state to guide the signage and advertisement material and some of them have chosen to disobey it even when they are jostling to become governor of the state.

“As a law abiding politician who is worthy of seeking the number one citizen of the state, I believe the easiest thing to do is to approach the law court to challenge the law or the fees.

“Their posters have flooded the entire state and they claim they did not post them. What have they done to check the activities of these so-called overzealous supporters?

“The bridges, electric poles and beautification structures have all been defaced, that will tell about the people who are coming into the election, how they will expect citizen to obey when they are disobeying while out of government,” he said

Emecheta said ANSAA was working with the police to arrest those defacing the streets with posters and warned politicians to call their supporters to order.

He said Gov. Willie Obiano had instructed the agency to pull down his posters.

He said the agency would use the law court to ensure that aspirants operated within the law.

“We shall not join them in their lawless nature; we shall meet them at the court, they have not challenged the nine million naira that we asked them to pay.

“The governor has directed us to pull down any poster of his we see anywhere and I maintain that it is not compulsory to paste posters, if you cannot pay, you can print handbills which is even more effective.

“The issue of billboard is between us and the outdoor companies, we are not dealing with the politicians and the assurance is that since we have the equipment, anywhere we see an unauthorised billboard, we pull it down,” he said.

The issue of campaign posters has been a source of disagreement between politicians in the state and the agency, which insists that those wishing to display theirs publicly must pay.

The politicians on their part say the agency’s action is aimed at excluding them from the race.