WITH less than 30 days to the general elections, the political parties have put their machinery in motion canvassing votes from the electorate through posters at strategic points, a development that is raising dust in Lagos.
In Lagos State, the frontline political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are talking tough.
As a way of creating awarenes
s for the parties and candidates for the various elective positions, posters and billboards are being pasted or erected on every available space in the state.
The Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) is the agency responsible for the regulations of pasting of posters, billboards and any form of advertisement in the state.
But crisis seems to be brewing between the APC and PDP over the removal and defacing of posters as both parties have continued to point accusing fingers at each other.
While the APC on its part is saying that the PDP and its supporters have been responsible for removal of posters belonging to candidates vying on its platform, the PDP says otherwise.
Prior to this, the Lagos State Police Command had asked LASAA to desist from removing the campaign posters and billboards of political parties.
The state Commissioner of Police, Cornelius Aderanti, was reported to have given the warning at the command headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos.
Aderanti, who said the police had also held a meeting with LASAA authorities on the matter, added that the electoral act did not permit any agency or people to remove candidates’ campaign posters.
According to him, “We note with concern the series of complaints which have been made against LASAA by candidates of various political parties about removal of campaign billboards and posters purportedly by personnel of the agency. The Electoral Act 2010 as amended is clear in Section 100(2), where it said that state apparatus, including the media shall not be employed to the advantage or the disadvantage of any political party or candidate in any election.
