READ WHAT LAGOSIANS ARE SAYING ABOUT CAMPAIGN POSTERS

As the 2015 general elections continue to draw near, politicians across the country have started soliciting for votes from potential voters through various means of political campaigns.

Though the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said no political party has been permitted to start electioneering campaign three months before the polls, it is not unusual to see political posters displayed all over Lagos.

A drive through Lagos metropolis one would be confronted with various political posters indiscriminately displayed on highways and streets.

These campaign posters are not only violating the law of the land, but have also been defacing public properties.

Most bridges, electric poles, walls of government buildings, abandoned vehicles and other structures have been turned into billboards to display campaign posters by the political parties.

As a result, the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency (LASAA), which had been created to regulate the excessive posters that litter the state, has reiterated its stand to maintain zero tolerance policy as regards the indiscriminate pasting of campaign posters in the state.

However, the agency is not finding it easy to control the way and manner at which campaign posters are pasted indiscriminately across Lagos.

This is evident in the complaints of Lagos residents over how their properties have been defaced with political posters.

Mr Opebinu Oluwasegun, 37, a property owner in Agege Motor Road, while commenting on the indiscriminate display of election campaign poster by politicians in Lagos state, narrated how his office building was defaced with campaign posters.

“I got to my office on Monday, 10 November, 2014 and discovered that the fence has been plastered with posters of 2015 election.

“When I inquired from my neighbours about those who pasted the posters, they said they also woke up to discover the posters.

“We later got to know that the posters were pasted late in the night,” he narrated.

Oluwasegun however informed that the posters were taken off his office building after he called LASAA.

Speaking on the magnitude at while most bridges in Ikeka area have been defaced with campaign posters, Mr Agada Emmanuel, 33, a marketer in Ikeja, stated that the ugly act calls for caution.

“From my little knowledge about outdoor advertising and public display of posters as stipulated by LASAA, I am aware that ‎billboards and wall drapes should only be displayed on existing structures that are owned and controlled for advert purposes by registered Outdoor Advertising Practitioners.

“It is disheartening that the same politicians who are soliciting for votes from the public are the ones who are breaking the law by defacing public structures with their campaign posters,” Emmanuel said.

A political aspirant, who did not want his name mentioned, who is also contesting in next year’s election, said LASAA had briefed all politicians as to how to go about posting campaign posters.

He said: “We have already been told by LASAA that posters may only be deployed on designated surfaces on inner streets only and are not to be deployed on highways, major roads and streets.

“While banners can be deployed on inner roads and streets only if it is attached to the wall of a particular building limited to ‎inner streets and not to be tied to poles or public utilities.

“It is unfortunate that some of our colleagues are disobeying these laws.

”If the people they recruit to help with the posting are not obeying the laws, the onus is on them to fashion out other means because it is their integrity that is at stake.”

Speaking on the implications of posters pasted on public structures, Mr. Samuel Eyinade, 51, a graphic designer, informed that the longer a poster remains on a structure, the worse damage it does to it.

“Most of these campaign posters usually remain in the street even after election as those politicians who pasted them see no reason to go out and take them down.

“Most times, these walls would need to be repainted to bring back its initial glow due to the damage that the posters would have done,” Eyinade said.

An interaction with a 17-year old boy who specialises in pasting posters in Alimosho area of Lagos revealed that his employers care little about whether he pastes the posters on authorised structures or not.

Opebinu Segun

He said: “I was not instructed as to where to paste it, I was only given a container containing starch, a brush and 800 posters.

“I have been paid N1500 as advance payment and would get another N1500 when I am done with the job.”

When queried if removing the posters after election was part of his job description, the young boy said: “No, I am not supposed to come back here again. I have been pasting posters since 2011 and I have never been told to go back and remove posters.”

LASAA boss, George Noah.

The Managing director of LASAA, George Noah, while reacting to the alarming rate of indiscriminate display of campaign posters by politicians on government and private structures across Lagos State, warned that any politician who does not abide by the law on display of election posters would be punished according to the law of the state.

And that it will result to immediate removal of the political campaign materials from such structures.