The Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency has
dragged two governorship aspirants in the state to court for not paying the
required levy of N9m each before pasting their campaign posters in some parts
of the state.
The Managing Director of ANSAA, Mr. Jude Emecheta, told our
correspondent that the affected aspirants are Mr. Ezeemo of the Progressives
Peoples Alliance and Dr. Tony Nwoye of the All Progressives Congress.
Emecheta said, “The law establishing ANSAA provides that no
person, agency, local government or organisation can put up a structure without
paying the mandatory fees. Every local government area in the state is a member
of ANSAA and they share the revenue accruing from such levies with the state
government.”
He further said the levy was not meant as a witch-hunt
against any of the aspirants, as alleged in some quarters, as the incumbent
governor, Willy Obiano, is also mandated to pay the levy before he would be
allowed to display his posters.
He said the agency had recently dismantled and destroyed
illegal billboards mounted by certain people, purporting to be working for
Obiano’s re-election.
“Though the agency has removed the governor’s posters and
dismantled the billboards erected along the Awka end of the Enugu-Onitsha
Expressway, the governor denied knowledge of the billboards and posters when
ANSAA confronted him,” Emecheta said.
Reacting to the matter, the Anambra state chairman of the
APC, Mr. Emeka Ibe, said the poster levy was unacceptable and meant to stifle
the opposition.
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