The Anambra State Signage and Advertisement Agency (ANSAA) has dragged some politicians in the state to court over alleged refusal to pay the stipulated fees for their billboards and posters pasted at different points within the state.

Addressing journalists on Monday 12 April 2016 in Awka, the Managing Director of ANSAA, Chief Jude Emecheta, said that following plea by some of the counsel to the politicians to resolve the matter out of court, his agency has given the affected politicians a period of one week to pay or have their names published in the media.

He said that the agency was worried that despite its effort to keep the state clean, politicians and their agents have been defacing it and refusing to pay the necessary fees.

In his words, “Their lawyers have told us they want to settle with us out of court and we have given them one week to do so, otherwise we will publish names of all the politicians involved.”

According to Emecheta, the agency has also written the president of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, reminding him of millions of naira owed to the agency.

The letter dated April 12, 2016, reads: “We will be glad f you inform all members of Outdoor Advertising Association of Nigeria, OAAN, that by the end of April, 2016, the agency will embark on enforcement, which means that the boards of OAAN members indebted to the agency will be pulled down.

“We will not only stop at removing flex materials, but will also remove the structures of chronic debtors.”

He however warned that those organising weddings, burials and other ceremonies, who put up posters in any part of the state must pay because they deface the environment.

While observing that the economy was adversely affecting most Nigerians, the ANSAA chairman stated that people should realise that they need to pay for mounting billboards for burial and other ceremonies since they have the money to prepare such billboards.

He described the State as a big market for advertising, saying that with the support given by Governor Willie Obiano, who already provided six functional vehicles to the agency, ANSAA could generate N1 billion by the end of this year.

•Photo shows Governor Obiano.

Update news