C’River sets N150m fee for presidential campaign ads, N100m for governorship candidates

The Cross River State Signage and Advertisement Agency (CRISSAA) has announced a N150 million tariff for presidential candidates seeking to place outdoor campaign advertisements in the state ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Under the new rate, governorship candidates will pay N100 million, while senatorial candidates are expected to pay N50 million.

Candidates contesting seats in the House of Representatives will pay N25 million, while those seeking election into the State House of Assembly will be charged N5 million.

The Director-General of CRISSAA, Ubong Sam, announced the tariffs during an interactive meeting with members of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Calabar.

Sam also directed political parties to remove their campaign billboards and other advertising materials within 30 days after the declaration of election results.

He said the rates were moderate compared with what obtained in neighbouring states, adding that the agency remained impartial in its dealings with political parties and candidates.

He said CRISSAA had introduced measures to regulate advertising spaces and ensure fairness among political parties and candidates.

“We have tried to regulate advert space, by not allowing anybody to insult the integrity of anybody or party, by being fair in all ramifications, by giving advertisers opportunity to either dialogue or arbitration and not necessarily by litigation,” he said.

Sam warned that defaulters risked having their campaign materials removed, paying fines or facing prosecution before the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, ARCON.

He said: “For defaulters having it at the back of their mind that ARCON fine is more than a million naira, there is no ARCON fine that is less than a million naira.”

On the deadline for removing campaign materials, the CRISSAA boss said political parties would have 30 days from the announcement of election results to remove their billboards and other campaign materials.

“Immediately after each election, at the expiration when results are announced, political parties are given 30 days to take off their campaign materials. Once it’s beyond 30 days, the advert materials become a nuisance,” he said.

The IPAC state chairman, Engr. Effiom Edet, backed the tariffs, describing them as fair, while the Special Adviser to the Governor on Inter-Party Affairs, Nkoyo Otu, assured stakeholders of transparency in the process.

However, the state chairman of the Action Democratic Party, Apostle Edet, and the Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, kicked against the tariffs.

They described the charges as outrageous and accused CRISSAA of attempting to shut out candidates from less financially buoyant political parties from using billboards for publicity ahead of the 2027 elections.

Speaking with Very Nigerian by telephone, the PDP spokesman, Mike Ojisi, said he was not part of any IPAC meeting where the tariffs were agreed.

“The tariff is outrageous, exorbitant and a ploy to prevent other political parties from carrying out massive publicity through billboards. The tariff is totally unacceptable,” he said.

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