UPP Senator Jonathan Joseph says there is a double standard within the DCA as he says he is ready to file a lawsuit against the government over his destroyed billboard.
On Thursday, the Development Control Agency removed the billboard above the display relating to Global Bank of Commerce CEO Brian Stuart-Young.
Over the past few weeks, the opposition has put up at least two billboards bearing similar messaging.
Last week Monday, the DCA issued a warning to the UPP General Secretary, calling on the party to take down all of its political advertising or face demolition of the billboards.
On the Snake Pit on Saturday, Senator Joseph express outrage over the incident that saw his billboard removed.
“What happens to free speech in this country? What happened to your rights? What happens to fair play? Because if my billboard is there, and a few yards down, my opponent billboard is there. His billboards stayed up from since 2018. With his poster, until the elections in last year, 2023, they put on the new one.”, the Senator alluded.
More than a year after the general election, the DCA says the UPP should have removed all of its political advertising fourteen days after the January 18 elections.
Suggesting that the DCA was being biased in its operations in this matter, Joseph says he is ready to take action against the government.
“My legal team, it’s in their in their hands. We’re going to court, but it’s not just enough for me to say we’re going to court, because I can’t leave it there, because I’m not, nobody’s going to silence me, nobody tell me when to speak, nobody tell me what to say and you don’t tell me how to say it, I’m not going to say too much with certain things, all right! Uhm, but the bottom line is what goes for one must go for all.
If my billboard is going to come down, then everybody’s billboard should come down and particularly my opponent who’s just a few yards down away from me.”
The Opposition Senator, meanwhile, calls on the Town and County Planner, Fredrick Southwell to explain the decision to act on his billboard at this time.
Last week, MP Kelvin Shugy Simon last he was taking legal action against the Development Control Authority (DCA) stemming from the removal of a billboard cover at his branch office in Bolans.
The incident in question occurred when DCA members, accompanied by police, removed a canvas covering a billboard featuring a statement about Brian Stuart-Young, the embattled CEO of the Global Bank of Commerce.
Simon described the situation as “disheartening” and criticized the actions as an infringement on freedom of speech and expression.