The Chief Magistrate Court II sitting in Yola, Adamawa State, has ordered the African Democratic Congress (ADC) governorship candidate in the state, Omar Suleiman, to pay N3 million in damages for pasting campaign posters on public structures.
The order was made on Thursday, with Suleiman’s counsel accusing the state government of using its powers to intimidate political opponents by instituting the case.
The court issued the order while ruling on a suit filed against Suleiman by the Adamawa State Ministry of Environment, the Adamawa State Urban Planning Board and the Attorney General.
The court held that Suleiman had pasted campaign posters at strategic locations, including flyovers, in violation of an executive order, and ordered him to pay the stated sum to the state government as damages resulting from his actions.
The court also warned Suleiman and his supporters to desist from indiscriminately pasting posters on public structures.
DAILY POST reports that Governor Ahmadu Fintiri had issued an executive order banning the pasting of campaign posters on public infrastructure, particularly on the flyovers across the state capital, Yola.
According to the government, Suleiman violated the order by displaying campaign posters on Unity Bridge in Jimeta, thereby breaching the executive order and Section 30(1) of the Environmental Protection Agency Law, Cap. 51, Laws of Adamawa State, 1997.
Reacting to the ruling, counsel to the complainants, Salihu Muhammad (Senior State Counsel II), welcomed the court’s decision.
On the part of the defendant, his counsel, Bala Sanga, said compliance with the ruling would not be a problem, as Suleiman’s campaign team had already resolved to stop pasting posters on public structures.
He, however, complained about what he described as the government’s “use of administrative fines to intimidate political opponents.”
Meanwhile, Suleiman’s campaign team, the Omrana Campaign Organisation, appealed for calm following the ruling.
The organisation’s Director General, Mark Wosi, said in a statement issued shortly after the judgment that supporters should remain law-abiding, as the campaign organisation respects the legal system.
