Last warning on your illegal posters, billboards, Oyo Signage tells aspirants

IN what it described as its last warning, the Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency (OYSAA) has condemned the continued indiscriminate pasting of posters, display of billboards and banners by aspirants to various political offices, vowing to arrest and prosecute offenders regardless their status.

Director General, OYSAA, Mr Yinka Adepoju who sounded this warning, said the agency was now provoked to act going by the continued failure of the politicians, their followers, political parties to yield its warnings on indiscriminate pasting of campaign posters on various structures across the state.

According to Adepoju, more worrisome was the fact that despite the fact that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was yet to lift its ban on campaigns for the 2019 elections, fence walls, highway roundabouts, public buildings, bridges and monuments had been defaced.

Adepoju, who spoke with Nigerian Tribune, said the agency’s efforts at removing posters were usually frustrated by politicians who paste different set of posters every other day.

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He, however, said OYSAA was set to go all out to rid unapproved banners, illegal billboards and prosecute offenders at the state mobile courts.

“The Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency (OYSAA) has in recent time observed the irresponsible manner in which campaign posters of political parties are being pasted around the cities.

“It is becoming worrisome to the agency and government the rate at which these posters are flying around. Several times, we have come up with warnings, we have addressed the press, we have demonstrated on the highways with cleaning exercises. But, surprisingly, in spite of our efforts, these political aspirants go on without looking back.

“Some did tell us that it was being done by their followers, members of their parties. We have even written the Chairmen of political parties informing them of this untoward attitude. But the environment continues to be debased day and night. We regularly clean up all the mess but by the following day, the posters are back.

“We are particularly worried because we are just moving into politicking. Going by INEC timetable, the electoral body has not even lifted the ban on campaigns but a lot are jumping the gun by pasting posters around. But that is left to INEC.

“It is high time we started arresting and applying sanctions for these defaulters and that we will do in the next couple of days. We are warning the perpetrators, for the umpteenth time, and I guess this will be the last time we will issue this warning.

“We have also discovered illegal billboards, and it took this government time and money to sanitise the environment but in the last couple of weeks, they have messed everything up. We can’t tolerate this anymore.

“We are also warning those putting up billboards, banners without approval. We’ll get rid of unapproved banners, illegal billboards.

“It is indeed a sad affair that some political aspirants and other stakeholders have continually flouted the extant law of the agency by pasting campaigns posters indiscriminately on fence walls, highway roundabouts, public buildings, bridges and monuments.

“The Agency will for no reason shelve its responsibilities but henceforth identify such defaulters no matter how highly placed and apply necessary sanctions as may be deemed fit,” Adepoju said.