The Chief Executive Officer of Lona Global Resources Limited, an indigenous outdoor advertising company, Mr. Idoko Ilonah, has sent a Save Our Soul message to President Muhammadu Buhari and well meaning Nigerians to help save his business, by prevailing on authorities at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to restore the approval, previously granted him, to construct the biggest L.E.D advertising board in the world.
Ilonah, who holds the record of constructing the biggest billboard in Africa, in 2016, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Road, Abuja, by Lugbe Interchange, said he had expended about N800 million on the construction of the world’s largest L.E.D board, along the Airport Expressway/Wawa (Centenary District) before he was ordered to stop work. He said he was granted approval by the FCT authorities before commencing the project.
He said he was shocked when the FCT minister ordered stoppage of the construction of the board.
Ilonah said his company had expended about N800 million on design and fabrication of steel and other items before the project was halted.
“I’m still paying interest on the N300 million loan facility procured to kickstart the project which the Guinness Book of Records was already tracking,” he said.
He said the capitulation by the FCT had put him in a precarious situation, thereby, making him to default on an agreement with a telecommunications company which pre-paid N300 million as the first advertiser on the historic billboard.
Beleaguered Ilonah is seeking help from president Buhari and other concerned Nigerians to intervene in order to enable him revive the project. He said this would help to realise his desire of putting the country on the world map, through the construction of the largest L.E.D Board in the globe.
“There are concerns in the private sector that any wrong signal sent by the government on a project of this magnitude may dampen investors’ confidence and position Nigeria as a country still struggling with conducive environment for businesses to thrive,” he said.