BAYELSA GOVT GIVES 48-HOUR ULTIMATUM TO ASPIRANTS TO COMPLY WITH REGULATIONS ON CAMPAIGN POSTERS

BAYELSA GOVT GIVES 48-HOUR ULTIMATUM TO ASPIRANTS TO COMPLY WITH REGULATIONS ON CAMPAIGN POSTERS

By Donald Sylva

The Bayelsa State Government has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to all gubernatorial aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party, the All Progressives Congress and other political parties to comply with the rules and regulations guiding the erection of campaign posters in the state.

The Commissioner for Environment, Mr. Ebipade Apaingolo, directed the relevant agencies to pull down all such campaign posters adorning the streets of Yenagoa without complying with the laws of the state within 48 hours in a statement on Monday night.

He said that it was compulsory for all the aspirants aspiring to govern the state without any exception to show good example by obeying the laws of the state.

He said that those who must erect campaign posters in conspicuous spots in the city and other parts of the state should approach the relevant agencies such as the Development Control to fulfil the requisite conditions prescribed by the existing laws.

Apaingolo was reacting to a claim by an Aspirant, Chief Timi Alaibe that his posters were being pulled down by agencies of government on Monday even when he and his team neither contacted nor paid any fee for the posters as required by law.

The Environment Commissioner stressed that it was the standard practice in every decent civilized society for those erecting billboards to contact Development Control or the relevant agencies for the approval which would have been readily given.

He expressed shock that an aspirant of the PDP who seeks to govern the state would rush to attack the government of his party over his own failure to approach the agencies to make the requisite payment for the erection of such campaign posters in the city.

He said that, by his actions, Alaibe had shown the Nigerian public that he was in the governorship contest with the sinister motive to cause confusion and destabilize the state.

He said that recent activities of the former NDDC MD has revealed that he was in cahoots with enemies of the government to promote acts of destabilization against the state.

Apaingolo maintained further that Alaibe has erected his campaign posters all over Yenagoa without making any payment to the agencies in an outright violation of the laws guiding the construction of campaign posters on billboards.

He wondered if Alaibe would have been able to put out a campaign poster in Lagos where he resides and pays his taxes without recourse to the rules and regulations in the state.

He says that it was rather regrettable that Alaibe who left the PDP in the build up to the 2015 elections to fight the party, and who was graciously readmitted into the party like a prodigal son because of the magnanimity of the governor would rather opt to vilify the governor and his government.

He said “it is in his bid to occupy the unenviable position in Bayelsa as the man whose ambition has made him to fight all governments of the state from inception in 1999 from Alamieyeseigha, to Jonathan, to Sylva, and now Governor Dickson who graciously admitted him into our party. It is unfortunate that he has allowed himself to be driven by his blind ambition and greed for power.”