The Oyo Rising Citizens Forum (ORCF) has strongly condemned the Oyo State Government and the Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency (OYSAA) over the deliberate targeting, harassment, and dismantling of campaign billboards belonging to the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Sharafadeen Alli.
In a sharply worded press statement signed by Aderemi Adebisi and Owolabi Salam, the civil society group described the coordinated clampdown as illegal, deeply undemocratic, and a clear sign of panic by the ruling PDP/APM administration ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The forum raised an alarm over a troubling development where registered advertising practitioners in the state are being actively terrorised by state actors.
According to the ORCF, several members of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON)—who had previously vetted, approved, and received payments to erect Senator Sharafadeen Alli’s billboards at strategic locations—have begun returning the funds.
The group revealed that these practitioners are pulling down the structures and refunding campaign money out of fear, following direct threats of licence revocation and structural sanctions issued by OYSAA management.
The ORCF described this interference in legal, commercial advertising contracts as a desperate abuse of regulatory power to enforce a partisan monopoly over public spaces.
The group pointed out that while opposition materials are systematically flagged, sealed, or dismantled under regulatory pretexts, the promotional materials of the ruling PDP/APM candidates remain untouched in the exact same zones.
The forum noted that utilising state signage agencies as weapons to suffocate opposition visibility is a direct violation of standard political fairness, reflecting a desperate fear of being rejected by the Oyo State electorate come 2027.
Speaking further, the ORCF issued a stern reminder to Governor Seyi Makinde’s administration and the leadership of OYSAA that structural vandalism can not change voter sentiment.
The group asserted that tearing down billboards will not erase the socio-economic realities faced by the citizens.
The forum declared that no amount of intimidation, state-sponsored threats, or suppression of outdoor media will prevent the people of Oyo State from voting massively for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, and all other APC contestants in the 2027 elections.