Ekiti panel, Fayose’s aide trade words over closed media outfits

The committee constituted by Governor Kayode Fayemi for the reopening of the Broadcasting Corporation of Ekiti State (BSES) and an aide of the immediate past governor, Mr. Lere Olayinka, are exchanged invectives over his refusal to honour an invitation to appear before the panel.

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) shut down the BSES on July 15 over alleged violation of broadcasting codes, among other infractions. The state-owned media outfit was then being supervised by Olayinka.

Briefing newsmen on the activities of the committee yesterday, the chairman, Mr. Segun Omolayo, chided Olayinka for failing to honour its invitation. “Lere Olayinka will only have himself to blame if he fails to come before the fact-finding panel,” Omolayo said.

According to him, Olayinka was invited through a letter and announcements on the media to appear before his team on Tuesday, November 13, but he was yet to honour the invitation as at yesterday morning.

But in a swift reaction, Olayinka vowed not to appear before the panel alleging that it was set up for a predetermined political agenda.

The Fayose’s aide, who said he was yet to receive the committee’s invitation letter, alleged further that it was Fayemi who influenced the NBC’s clampdown on the station as part of a grand plot to take Ekiti State by force.

“While it is an established fact that as I write today, November 14, 2018, I am yet to receive any official invitation from the so-called committee to that effect, I wish to state expressly that I am not under any obligation to appear before the panel or any other one for that matter.

“From its actions so far, especially the press statement in which it referred to yesterday’s date as November 23, 2018, it is clear that the said committee was not properly briefed on its scope, powers and functions, hence its ill decision to embark on a naked dance at Oja Oba Market, advertising its ignorance to the entire world by acting like a judicial panel or a court of law.

“I, therefore, wish to inform those who set the committee up for a pre-determined purpose that I, Lere Olayinka, will not appear before any committee of a government that was faultily established with the stolen mandate of Ekiti people.

“Most importantly, since one of the major reasons for setting up the committee is to find out what led to the closure of Ekiti FM 91.5 and EKTV on July 14, 2018, I advise the committee to seek audience with Fayemi, who engineered the closure through his Abuja collaborators.”