The Anambra State Signage and Advertising Agency (ANSAA) has called for effective take off of Revenue Courts in the state to recover N300 million owed by defaulters.
Jude Emecheta, managing director of the agency, made the call in an interview with BusinessDay on Friday in Awka, saying outdoor signage clients had refused to pay the outstanding N300 million owed the state government for years.
Consequently, the special courts like revenue courts are necessary for effective enforcement of the debt recovery because the normal courts had not yielded the required results.
“We have over N300 million outstanding in the hands of signage defaulters here in Anambra. This is why we are calling for effective take off of special courts. We need the revenue courts to enable us recover these debts.
“The conventional courts, like the magistrate courts, which we have been using, have not been forceful, due to their inability to grant us some of the reliefs we sought for.
“The state government has set up these courts but they have not taken off. We are waiting so that we can drag our debtors to the courts,’’ Emecheta said.
He said ANSAA had compiled a list of 21 politicians who would be charged to court for violating signage codes and not paying fees, saying the agency was presently removing all political billboards and posters in line with the law guiding signage in the state.
He, however, expressed regret that the cleaning up of Anambra sky space was at a huge cost to the government, noting, “95 percent of politicians who erected billboards did not pay. They claimed they did not put up those signage and that their supporters did these.
“Some who were supposed to pay as much as N40 million, paid just N3 million. Now, we are cleaning up the entire Anambra sky space at a very huge cost, which should not be so.
“We are taking about 21 of the politicians to court to force them to pay. They are not free even after the elections are over.
“Some of them are paying because of court summons on them but they have until the end of April to clear their debts or face prosecution,’’ he said.
