7th February, 2023
By Jethro Ibileke
Giant campaign billboards of the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and his running mate, Senator Kashim Shettima, have been sighted at strategic locations within the vicinity of the Benin Airport, in Edo state.
Opposition political parties in the state had been denied opportunity to display campaign posters of their respective candidates.
The PDP-led Edo state government which had been variously accused of using state machinery to frustrate and prevent opposition parties from erecting campaign billboards, especially in Benin, the state capital.
But the patyy had claimed that it owns every billboard in Benin City having paid for them well ahead of the commencement of political campaigns.
The move was said to have been targeted at APC, the main opposition party, and, perhaps, the Labour Party (LP).
Also, the State Governor, Mr. Goodwin Obaseki, allegedly threatened to descend heavily on any billboard proprietor who accepts to erect the campaign billboards of the APC and the other parties, a remark reportedly drew the ire of the members of the public who felt his stance was anti-democratic as well as capable of stifling the democratic space.
APC has, however, devised a clever way to beat the state government in its own game by mounting the party’s campaign billboards at the ever-busy airport.
The strategically-positioned boards are mounted at both the entry and exit points of the airport. Their bold and colourful inscriptions cannot but attract the attention of those going in and coming out of the airport.