Nationwide protests: No report of destruction of members’ billboards —OAAN

THE President of the Out of Home Advertising Association of Nigeria (OAAN), Mr. Sola Akinsiku has said that nine of his members’ billboards were destroyed, by the End Bad Governance protesters, not even where such protests had taken a violent turn.

In an exclusive chat with Nigerian Tribune, Akinsiku stated that the leadership of the association was to yet to get any such complaint, as at the time he was speaking with the correspondent, over the weekend.

The OAAN boss however admitted that the protests must have hindered the activities and operations of some members, but none had resulted in the vandalisation of members’ signages.

According to him, members in the South West, South East and South South where the protests had been relatively peaceful had been conducting their affairs without any fear of molestation.

“I think up till now there has not been any report of billboard vandalisation from any of our members, even at places where the demonstration turned violent.

“Yes, members who might have some campaign materials to replace might have such activities hindered, especially in parts of the country where we had cases of violence, but it’s been so far, so good, as far as our signages are concerned. No report of destruction of any, since the demonstration started,” Akinsiku stated.

It is on record that the demonstration which started on a peaceful note on August 1, later turned violent in some parts of the country, leading to wanton destruction of individual and public properties, running into billions of naira, and amounting to temporary shutdown of social and economic activities, in those areas.

Akin Adewakun