2023: LASAA Urges Adherence to Campaign Guidelines, Warns against Impunity
Omolabake Fasogbon
As the 2023 election campaigns begin in earnest, the Lagos State Signage and Advertisements Agency (LASAA) has urged political parties and their candidates to adhere to guidelines on the use of campaign materials in the state.
The agency in a statement made available to THISDAY yesterday warned that it would not condone any act of impunity, assuring stakeholders that it was ready to work with all political parties and campaigners to ensure that they enjoy visibility in the state.
The statement signed by LASAA Managing Director, Adedamola Docemo, warned that the agency would not hesitate to remove any material found to have violated existing guidelines.
Docemo said the guidelines were issued in accordance with the agency’s responsibilities on the use of billboards/wall drapes, banners, A-frames, and posters, to establish sanity and protect the environment from defilement.
He stressed that the guidelines were issued without prejudice to any political party or association, rather, it intends to ensure fairness and equality among all stakeholders.
Reemphasising the guidelines in the statement, Docemo said billboards and wall drapes may only be deployed on existing structures owned and operated by Outdoor Advertising Practitioners registered with LASAA and with valid permit.
According to him, “A-frame may only be placed on road verges, medians on inner streets, and must not exceed a size of 2×1 meter (big size) and 0.5×0.5 meters (small size). It must have a distance of not less than 100 meters between each sign deployed.
“Furthermore, banners may only be displayed on inner roads and streets, subject to the conditions that the banner is attached to the wall of a building with the consent of owners, and must not be tied to poles or public utilities.
“Similarly, posters may be pasted on designated surfaces on inner streets only and are not to be seen on highways, major roads and high streets.”
The agency also advised campaigners to embrace other creative and innovative platforms, including e-tick in the ground, billboards, mobile A-frames, and mobile adverts.
The LASAA boss added “We have also identified several public safety infractions on some of the already deployed campaign materials during our recent monitoring and compliance exercise. These materials fall short of our safety standards within the Agency. Our assessment also showed many of these materials deployed are light weight and are easily blown away due to heavy wind on our major highways especially the 3rd mainland and Eko bridge axis. We will be conducting necessary enforcement exercise to remove them in the interest of public safety”.
