Lagos agency engages 1,000 youths to remove campaign posters

AS part of its post-election activities and beautification plan, the Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA) yesterday announced that it would engage 1,000 youths to rid the city of election campaign posters.

Speaking on the exercise, the Managing Director of LASAA, Mr. Tunji Bello, said: “Today’s event is significant in many ways. It is a time not only to restate our commitment to keeping Lagos clean and beautiful, but also a time to re-affirm the focus of our agency. This is the time to reclaim the beauty of our city following the conclusion of the general elections”.

He recalled that before commencement of the polls, there were various messages and measures put in place to curb the indiscriminate posting of political posters, banners and other materials for election campaigns.

“We established clear guidelines and communicated this to all parties concerned. We also engaged members of the media about our mission to ensure a cleaner city, even during the elections. All these we did without prejudice to any political party or association. It was our intention to ensure fairness and to apply the rules without sentiments. Our common interest was to establish sanity and protect the environment from further defilement as a result of visual blight”, he said.

“Like His Excellency suggested, this exercise will engage 1,000 youths. These are the foot soldiers of all successful candidates including all three senators, 24 House of Reps members, as well as 40 state House of Assembly members in the recently-concluded general elections”, he said.

Bello revealed that Schedule 3 subsection (1) of the LASAA Law empowers LASAA to control the posting and display of posters on public structures and highways.

He said: “To this end, we re-affirm that we will not hesitate to apply the full weight of the law on anybody who violates the law. As we perform this launching today, our mission is simple: to take our city back. I urge you (all the members of the public) to join hands with LASAA on this massive clean-up exercise.

“We urge organisations, which indulge in the posting of posters defacing the city to exploit other avenues of advertisement and communication, which are rather effective and efficient.

“Apart from the purchase of additional equipment for this clean-up, we are also embarking on the painting of designated locations in every ward for the posting of posters”.