Radio TNT 102.5 FM

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State has accused the Osun State Government and the state advertising agency, O’Signage of undemocratic and illegal blocking, removal and non-approval of campaign billboards of its gubernatorial candidate situated in strategic areas of the state.

The Osun PDP, in a statement signed by Olawale Rasheed, the Director, Media and Strategy, Osun PDP Governorship Campaign Organisation, revealed that it was constrained to alert the Advertising Practitioner’s Council Of Nigeria (APCON) and other regulatory agencies.

Rasheed, who claimed that the organization had it on good authority that the state advertising agency, O-Signage has issued directives to outdoor advertising practitioners in the state not to accept any placement from PDP Governorship Campaign Organisation, added that practitioners who tried to defy the directive were threatened with revocation of operating licences.

The PDP campaign organisation lamented that the agency had gone ahead to pressurise outdoor advertising practitioners based in the state to remove existing billboards of Ademola Adeleke, the PDP gubernatorial candidate and replaced same with that of the Governor, who is the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The organisation, which lamented that political thugs have also been engaged to launch attacks on any billboard bearing Adeleke’s posters across the State, disclosed that the action was in clear contravention of the Nigerian Code of Advertising Practice and an evident breach of the act setting up the Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON).

While noting that O-Signage was not only setting a dangerous precedent but also acting in wanton disregard of the Constitution and relevant advertising laws in the country, it held that a level-playing field for all clients is a mandatory provision in the APCON Act.

Wondering what the Oyetola administration is afraid of by stifling equal access for advertising, the campaign organization maintained that if the state government was truly committed to democratic norms, it will not be scared of the electorates getting and consuming alternative messages under the electoral system.

“We will take all necessary legal and democratic steps to secure our democratic rights to campaign and present our candidate to the people of Osun State.

“We shall legally resist all anti-democratic forces. The will of the people must prevail. This is not 2018,” it concluded.

As at the time of filing this report, attempts to get the reaction of the APC proved futile as the party’s Director of Media and Publicity, Kunle Oyatomi did not respond to phone calls and messages sent to him.