From Uchenna Ezeadigwe
Awka
Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency (ANSAA) has said that it will begin to confiscate unpaid branded election vehicles and illegal mounting of billboards across the state.
Managing Director of the agency, Mr. Jude Okechukwu Emecheta, stated this during an interaction with our correspondent in his office in Awka.
Emecheta, who explained that Governor Willie Obiano has never instructed the agency to destroy or pull down any billboard because he doesn’t want to see anybody’s face, maintained that the All Progressives Grand Alliance would not run the November 6 governorship election alone. Rather, he said, it would be alongside other political parties, emphasizing that relevant laws had made adequate provisions for what people must do to contest an election.
He said the agency had made concerted efforts to advocate and to explain to politicians why they should pay for all political adverts with no exceptions; saying that some of them had come to pick the lawbook to understand what was required of them while those who had decided to be unnecessarily obstinate had resorted to cheap blackmail to evade payment.
He further disclosed that the agency was auditing all the billboards in Anambra state to ascertain whether they had been paid for. Emecheta said, “The only way we can recover our revenue is to remove all political adverts and billboards not paid for to compel them to come and pay.
“The primary election is in June. So before the end of April, if you don’t pay, we go and remove your billboards. We have also told them not to paste any posters on public buildings because the punishment is outright removal.”
