Soludo taxing political campaign is illegal, Umeh says he will sue Anambra to court
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
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“What Soludo is doing is illegal. No government has a right to tax any candidate to pay any money before he can campaign.
“What he is saying is that if you can’t pay N10 million or N7 million you can’t campaign after being nominated by your party to contest election for them.
“It’s illegal to tax any candidate by the state government before the candidate begins to campaign. Matters about campaign are regulated by the Independent National Electoral Commission” – Umeh
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Anambra Governor Charles Soludo has denied he personally ordered the pulling down of campaign billboards in the state but Victor Umeh has countered it was his government that imposed an illegal tax on billboards which led to the fiasco.
The state government announced in August 2022 candidates for President would pay N10 million, Senate (N7 million), House of Representatives (N5 million) and state House of Assembly (N1 million) to erect campaign billboards.
Umeh, Labour Party (LP) Anambra Central Senatorial candidate, has threatened to take legal action against the Anambra government if the billboards are not restored.
He said the government has no power in law to regulate the electoral process which is the sole responsibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
“There is nothing like campaign fees under the electoral law. No state government has a right to impose any fee on any candidate before he could campaign.
“There is no such law in Nigeria and no such law either in Anambra State passed by the State House of Assembly.
“If Soludo makes an executive order of humongous fees of N10 million, N7 million, etc before one could campaign in the state, that’s against democracy. You can’t prevent somebody from campaigning with arbitrary fees,” per reporting by Vanguard.
Umeh said he paid about N4 million to his advertising agency for billboards and it paid to ANSAA the required fees for outdoor adverts.
“It is INEC that sets rules for campaigns not state governments. A state government doesn’t conduct elections.
“You can’t tax a candidate of a political party to pay a state government before he can campaign. No other state does that except Soludo’s state. Who did Soludo pay campaign fees to in 2021 when he contested for governor?
“I have told the advertising agent to write to the state government to restore the billboard because it was a contract signed with them and I paid them full and they paid ANSAA.”
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Soludo did not pay tax to campaign for Governor, says Umeh
“Why should Peter Obi pay N10 million to Soludo before he could campaign in Anambra State and Umeh to pay N7 million? Umeh wondered, per Vanguard.
“There should be nothing in the way of any candidate to campaign to look for votes under the Electoral Law. What Soludo is doing is illegal. No government has a right to tax any candidate to pay any money before he can campaign.
“What he is saying is that if you can’t pay N10 million or N7 million you can’t campaign after being nominated by your party to contest election for them.
“It’s illegal to tax any candidate by the state government before the candidate begins to campaign. Matters about campaign are regulated by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“The government has no hands in regulating political parties’ campaigns. No government has a right to place tax on any candidate for campaigning.
“Campaign is an open and free thing to solicit for votes. Government cannot say that before you campaign for an office [and even though] you have been properly documented by INEC, you have to pay fees.”
ANSAA confirms pulling down campaign billboards
Anambra Signage and Advertising Agency (ANSAA) Managing Director Tony Ujubuonu argued the removal the billboards has nothing to do with Soludo, it was because of a challenge his agency had with the agent who erected the billboards.
“The bridge was having Labour Party billboard. If you recall, in August 2022 we sent out a message to all political parties to pay up their campaign fees,” he said.
“None of them has paid their own. So most of the political parties that have not paid and have adverts on government assets were removed.
“It has nothing to do with the Governor. The Governor didn’t give any order. If they said they paid the campaign fees, let them give me the evidence. I should know who paid because I’m the ANSAA MD.
“They didn’t pay the campaign fees and we spoke to their media heads several times. We informed them about the enforcement and they haven’t paid it, so we decided to take down the adverts.
“Anybody that tells you anything about the Governor and the billboard is telling you lies. When the advert was removed, the government refunded the advertising agency that mounted the advert its money.
“The money was refunded to the agency who owned the board, not to the client.
“We don’t deal directly with the Labour Party, but with the advertising agency that mounted the board.”