The Edo State government on Wednesday said it had no power to stop billboard owners from leasing spaces to opposition in the state.

Chris Nehikhare, Edo State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation who also doubles as the Deputy Director, Media and Publicity of the Edo State PDP Campaign Management Council, while addressing a press conference in Benin City, said the state government is not the owner of billboards but only control where they are allocated.

According to the Commissioner, “in the last 24 hours we have received several calls from newspapers especially talking about the billboards issue here in Edo State, particularly in Benin City, I think human Rights should also embrace this issue and let us know we are on the same page.

“It’s not a coincidence that the elections are around the corner and as far back as months ago, the Edo State government discussed with all Billboards owners to make space for quite a number of billboards across the Benin metropolis and we did not take possession because we were waiting for the campaigns to kick off.

“If a billboard agent has taken money from you and you cannot post your billboard go back and collect your money the truth of the matter is that it is the government that paid first, we have paid for it.

“We are not an agency of billboards, we are not owners of billboards but we control where they are allocated and we are able to have the foresight to make payment long before now and we do not owe any apologies to anyone who does not have the foresight to do it.

“We are not like Lagos State this is Edo State we pay for our billboards to use and if anybody has taken money from other potential customers they should refund the money to them.

“We did not pay for all the Billboards we paid for as many as we thought we needed and that is the position of this issue of billboards in Edo State,” he said.

Nehikhare also said that the state government does not want the experience of Benin being an urban slum replicated in other parts of the state. He was reacting to the lingering land issue in the state.

“We are doing recapturing of data of those who were victims of land grabbers, we have captured about 450 – 500, more accurately we have captured 400 people they have all come in to tell us who they bought from and the number of lands they have, some have up to 10 plots or more plots and we are trying to make sure that those that collected money from them they are going to get recompense.

“This process is not going to end here (Benin City), it is going to be a statewide thing, we are going to make sure that all new settlements are properly planned and laid out. What we want to do is to ensure that all lands are registered and laid out so that we do not have the urban slum which we now have in today’s Benin City.

”The State government wants to once again thank the Edo people for the support we are getting from the people, it is not just going to end here it is going to be a State-wide thing. We are going to spread it and make sure all new settlements are properly planned.

“Any community that wants to start selling land for anybody or anybody that wants to buy land from any community should go to Edogist to do a simple search, this cost as little as N25,000.

“What this does for you is to make sure you don’t have sleepless nights later because going to Edogist will tell you if government have interest in the land and if the land is encumbered in any way and our people those who want to sell land we are not taking from them what we do is have all land registered, all land laid out so that we do not have the urban slum which we now have in today Benin City.

“So we want to encourage communities that if you have an area you want to start selling go and register it with the government, bring a layout let government approve your layout, what that does is that we all know where the roads will be, we all know where the Creek area will be.

“We all know where the schools, marketplace, police station, churches and other things will be and when this is are in place residential areas are now laid out people now know where they are buying lands from” he further declared.

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