Banner Bandit strikes again: Second candidate has banner torn down

A second candidate has had their banner mysteriously removed from the Square.

UEA was rocked by a second election scandal last night, when it emerged that a candidate for Activities and Opportunities Officer had also had his campaign banner stolen.

Yinbo Yu – the sitting Activities and Opportunities Officer at the Union of UEA Students – was horrified to find out that his banner had been torn down and replaced by another candidate’s late on Sunday afternoon.

Yinbo’s banner before it disappeared

Yinbo discovered that his banner was missing when he returned to check on it at around 3pm.

He said: “I rolled up my banner on Saturday night to avoid it being damaged by LCR night like everyone else did, but I found that my banner was missing today [Sunday] in the afternoon and I couldn’t find it anywhere.

“It was replaced by another candidate’s banner. I’ve contacted the DRO and he said he will email security to see if there’s any light that he can shed on this.”

Meanwhile, Yinbo has been forced to replace his banner with an old one left over from his campaign last year.

The Tab also managed to track down the man whose banner had taken Yinbo’s place.

But the candidate insisted that he had not removed Yinbo’s banner, and was not the ‘Banner Bandit’.

Daniel Delargy, running for Welfare Officer, said: “Yinbo’s banner was already gone by the time I arrived on campus. I had a sneaky feeling that space was weirdly vacant.

Daniel also mentioned that he has had to move his own banner twice – and may even have fallen victim to the Bandit himself.

“My banner got taken down Friday and replaced, so I had to move it. I had to move it again on Sunday due to the fact it was blocking posters.

“The first time was because it was taken down – or fell, as I was using (copious amounts of) packaging tape. Since I had no evidence, and the friend I had with me has no faith in sticky tape, we chalked it up to bad luck. I couldn’t put it back up where it was because someone had put theirs up where mine had been.