The Bauchi state Environmental Protection Agency, (BASEPA), Monday, directed all political parties in the state to immediately remove all campaign posters, billboards and signboards placed in public places across the state.
The Director General, BASEPA, Dr. Ibrahim Kabiru, gave the directives at a press conference held at the agency’s Headquarters in Bauchi.
He gave the political parties seven days ultimatum within which they are to remove all the campaign materials within the state capital and across the 20 local government areas of the state.
Kabiru said failure to heed the directives, the agency would have no choice but to render them as wastes that would be removed and disposed.
He said, “We want to call the attention of political parties and all others and their supporters regarding what we call at this time, something that is unnecessary. Earlier on, before the elections, we know that there were billboards, signboards and other materials that were used in order to showcase the candidates contesting for one position or the other.
“Currently, the election period has ended and we are in a time of governance. And the issue of governance had nothing to do with different political parties. Any party that won the election will have to take the lead and make sure that it is just for everyone despite differences in political parties.
“At this juncture, being the Bauchi Environmental Protection Agency, the agency that has the mandate to ensure esthetics in the metropolis and to ensure cleanliness and to make sure that all our streets and the nooks and crannies of the entire Bauchi State are tidy, we are calling on the attention of the general public, political parties, candidates and their followers that within the next one week, starting from the 8th of May, 2023 to the 15th of this month, to evacuate anything that has to do with political show off in terms of the billboards, signboards and posters.
“Wherever they are whether here in Bauchi metropolis, the City Center, and across the 20 local government areas of the state. It is a mandate of the agency to ensure that the metropolis and the local government areas are tidy. We know that the billboards, signboards and posters are owned by the political parties and their followers, so they should remove them within the next one week.
“After this one week, Bauchi State Environmental Protection Agency will consider all these materials as wastes and everyone knows that we have a mandate to evacuate wastes wherever it is and we are going to act. I am saying that across all the parties the PDP, the APC, the NNPP and all the others are to take note of that.”
