2027 Elections: Cross River Fixes ₦150 Million For Presidential Campaign Billboards

The Cross River State Signage and Advertisement Agency (CRISSAA) has fixed ₦150 million as the tariff for outdoor campaign advertisements by presidential candidates ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Naija News understands that under the new tariff, governorship candidates are expected to pay ₦100 million, while senatorial candidates will pay ₦50 million for outdoor campaign advertisements.

Candidates contesting seats in the House of Representatives and State House of Assembly are to pay ₦25 million and ₦ 5 million respectively.

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

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

He said the charges were moderate when compared with tariffs in neighbouring states, insisting that the agency was not taking sides in its dealings with political parties and candidates.

According to him, CRISSAA introduced the new measures to properly 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.

The CRISSAA boss warned political parties and candidates against violating the agency’s regulations, saying defaulters could have their campaign materials removed, pay fines or face prosecution before the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria, ARCON.

Sam stressed that ARCON fines could run into millions of naira.

“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,” he said.

He further explained that the 30-day period for removing campaign materials would begin immediately after the results of each election were announced.

“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,” Sam said.

The Cross River State Chairman of IPAC, Engr. Effiom Edet, supported the new tariffs, describing the charges as fair.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Inter-Party Affairs, Nkoyo Otu, also assured political parties and other stakeholders that the process would be handled transparently.

However, the new charges were rejected by some opposition parties in the state.

The state chairman of the Action Democratic Party, Apostle Edet, and the Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mike Ojisi, described the tariffs as excessive.

They accused CRISSAA of attempting to prevent candidates and political parties with limited financial resources from using billboards and other outdoor advertising platforms to reach voters ahead of the 2027 elections.

PDP Rejects ₦150 Million Presidential Tariff

According to Vanguard, Ojisi, while speaking by telephone, said he was not part of any IPAC meeting where the new tariffs were agreed upon.

He described the charges as unreasonable and argued that they could place smaller political parties at a disadvantage during the election campaign.

“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.