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Barely two months after Anambra State Governor Professor Charles Chukwuma Soludo criticised Mr. Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) for worthless savings, the State Government has expanded the battle front further by pulling down the campaign billboards of Obi and the Senatorial candidate of the party for Anambra Central District, Chief Victor Umeh, mounted at strategic places in the state.
The Labour Party accused Soludo of giving the order for the action to be taken.
A chieftain of the party who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Obi and Umeh’s large billboard at the UNIZIK Temporary Site Flyover was pulled down on Saturday by the Anambra Signage and Advertising Agency( ANSAA).
He alleged that the billboard at UNIZIK Temporary Site Junction was removed on the orders of Soludo.
He argued that “The advert which was placed by an APCON registered Advertising Agency was fully paid for.
“Soludo said that he does not want Labour Party advert on such a strategic place and ordered the Anambra Signage Agency to refund the money it received for the advert.
“He also ordered the removal of the Labour Party advert at the Afor Nnobi Gantry. This Advert has been there since October, 2022 and was paid for five months.
However, the Managing Director of Anambra Signage and Advertising Agency( ANSAA), Mr Tony Ujubuonu, confirmed that the LP billboard was removed on Saturday but not on the orders of the state governor.
He said: “Whatever that was removed was as a result of a challenge we had with the agent that erected the board.
First and foremost is that the bridge you are talking about was having a Labour Party billboard. If you recall, in August, we sent out a message to all political parties to pay up their campaign fees.
“There was a lot of hullabaloo about it. None of them has paid their own. So most of the parties that have not paid theirs that have adverts on government assets were removed. It has nothing to do with the governor. Governor didn’t give any order. If they said they paid the campaign fees, let them give me any evidence, I should know, I am the the ANSAA MD.
“They didn’t pay the campaign fees and we spoke to their media heads several times; we informed them about the enforcement, and they haven’t paid it so we decided to take down the advert. It has nothing to do with the governor. Anybody that tells you anything about the governor and the billboard is telling you lies.
According to Ujubuonu when the advert was removed, government refunded the advertising agency that mounted the advert its money.
He added: “The money was refunded to the agency which owned the board not to the client. We don’t deal directly with the Labour Party, we deal with the advertising agency that mounted the board. The money was refunded to the agency because they must have incurred some debts on that particular period”, he concluded.
