Oyo begins removal of illegal billboards, structures April 20

WITH a view to sanitising the outdoor landscape, the Oyo State government will from April 20 begin the removal of unapproved billboards, rickety and substandard structures dotting the state.
Director General, Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency (OYSAA), Mr Yinka Adepoju who disclosed this to Tribune Online, said the clampdown would also be upon advert practitioners, corporate entities, individuals, religious organisations, schools, filling stations, banks who default in payment of advert taxes to the government.
He said the week-long enforcement exercise also targeted some defaulting individuals and organisations who failed to heed its correspondences to pay its debts for the past three years.
Adepoju added that seized structures would be confiscated and those interested in reclaiming their structures would be mandated to pay fines and clear all their outstanding debts to the state government.
He urged persons desirous of placing materials across the state to get their materials and sites approved before thy erect them, which will also enhance the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR).
“We have decided to go back to the streets to sanitise the roads. The environment is not looking good again. We will remove all illegal structures like boards that were not approved at all that were erected by illegal practitioners. Ideally, one will expect that those who are registered practitioners will come to us to seek approval for sites, and we are not negotiating with anybody on those ones.
“We also will not tolerate those that were approved and those owners or practitioners decide to put up something substandard, maybe trying to cut costs. They must be brought up to our own standards. We will remove them unless they are regularised. They know this because they are well stated in our guidelines.”
“There are also boards and sites that have been approved but not paid for. Some owe up to three years. You must fulfil your financial obligations to government. We discover that our debt profile is rising. Some just do things arbitrarily but there is no room for illegality in our state.
“We have rolled out directives to corporate entities, practitioners, individuals, religious organisations, schools, filling stations, banks.
Warning letters through emails and some other means of communication, hence, those concerned should make it a point of duty to fulfil their financial obligations to government. First party or third party signages are not paid for.”
“Some have not paid back as far as 2014. The major culprits are practitioners who claim that the economy is in recession. But, they should know that we have a responsibility to increase the Internally Generated Revenue of the state and we have a responsible government that is doing its best to make life good for the people and in the course of doing that, money is needed to run government.”
“This is despite the fact that government is fulfilling its own aspect of the deal by providing security for such boards and making sure that they do their business under peaceful atmosphere. They owe government the obligation to not pay at will, but pay promptly,” Adepoju said.