LASAA parleys military, police on billboards at formations

The controversy surrounding outdoor structures in police and military formations in Lagos State may soon end following series of meetings with stakeholders organised by Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency (LASAA). The agency says the meetings were organised to find a lasting solution to regulatory bottlenecks in those locations.

George Noah, managing director of LASAA, said the agency had no fundamental opposition to outdoor structures in military formations. “All outdoor structures in Lagos State must be subjected to LASAA’s scrutiny and approval. We are not planning to run operators out of business, but our responsibility is to ensure that every billboard in the state is fit and proper in terms of structure, illumination location and size. Many of the Unipoles outlawed in Lagos State that are in military and police premises must all be subjected to the same regulatory tests that other structures elsewhere in the state are subjected to,” he said in a statement.

The issue of billboards within military formations in the state has been a longstanding dispute between LASAA and the military authorities. Only recently LASAA wrote to all advertisers whose brands are currently displayed on such un-approved boards to withdraw their campaigns. It is expected that this new direction will put an end to the long-drawn battle.

At a recent meeting with the relevant stakeholders, Noah expressed LASAA’s readiness to work with all the military stakeholders and security agencies concerned, saying “I believe this matter can be resolved amicably on a roundtable discussion, rather than litigation.”

This point was buttressed by the representative of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Lanre Akinsola, who in a statement reiterated the need to resolve the issues rather than resorting to a law suit. Noah stressed the issue of safety and the need to avoid more cases of collapsed structures, and also spoke of the need to conduct integrity check on the structures, to see the appropriateness of the site, the type of structure, ensure adherence to the guidelines governing outdoor regulation and conformity.

He had recently at a meeting with advertisers said the state government, which is concerned about revenue from taxes, was losing N1 billion tariff annually from advertisement billboards at military and police formations within the state.

Worried by this development, he regretted the mounting of what he described as “illegal outdoor signage” at military, police and other Federal Government establishments in the state.