Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Abia State Government has vowed tough actions against advertising agencies that do shoddy jobs in erecting their billboards.
This is as it has promised to take care of the medical bills of the victims of Wednesday’s billboard crash at Aba, the Enyimba City.
Director General of the Abia State Signage & Advertisement Agency, ABSAA, Dr Victoria Onwubuiko, who stated this in an interview, described the Aba incident as very unfortunate.
She noted that some advertising agencies fail to adhere to standard practice in erecting billboards but vowed that henceforth, the agency would come hard on defaulters.
According to her, the crashing of the billboard at Aba mounted about five years ago, could have been as a result of poor installation.
“The billboard is about five years old. Maybe it wasn’t properly mounted. Apparently there was not enough supervision then. You know some of these guys cut corners if not properly monitored,” she said.
She explained that there should be proper supervision of the billboards at every stage.
On the measures by the agency to forestall similar tragedy in the future, the ABSAA boss said stricter measures had been put in place to ensure compliances with the best practices.
“Currently, we supervise them right from the time they are digging the soil for mounting the billboards to ensure they get the required depth.
“We will also check all the billboards across the state and anyone that is not technically sound will go down,” she vowed.
She said that the Lagos-based advertising agency that owned the billboard had been contacted, adding that the agency had sent a representative who was already in the state, and currently discussing with the family of the deceased victim.
Meanwhile, the ABSAA DG gave the total number of victims of the crash as eight, explaining that contrary to speculations, only one person died during the tragedy.
Recall that a massive advertising billboard collapsed on Wednesday during a heavy downpour, trapping some passengers inside tricycles.
Many of them were injured and later rushed to the hospital after rescue came their way.
The tragedy happened at the Salad Market junction near the GIA Event Centre at Aba Owerri Road during a heavy rainfall accompanied by violent winds.
Eyewitnesses said the billboard which was about the tallest in the state, collapsed without warning.
