The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has petitioned the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) against “acts of unprofessionalism and abuses” in the Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State (BSES).
In a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, the party called the NBC’s attention to the poor quality control mechanism arising from poor staffing in the leadership cadre of the television and radio stations.
“We have discovered that the core professionals who can advise on the quality control mechanism of the two stations have been sidelined in favour of Governor Ayodele Fayose’s cronies, who do not have requisite qualification to hold their positions.
“For instance, apart from the avalanche of contract staff who were hired on the basis of partisan solidarity, the Acting Director General of BSES, Lere Olayinka, has never practised in any reputable newsroom of any print or electronic media anywhere across the country.
“At best, he is a political journalist without any basic grounding in media practice and he is often used by politicians to malign innocent opponents.”
He said Olayinka’s lack of requisite qualification had adverse effects on quality programming and professional touch in the running of the radio and television stations.
The APC spokesman urged NBC to apply its standard to ensure and promote ethics and professionalism in the sensitive profession of electronic communication at BSES.
He urged NBC to investigate Olayinka’s qualification, pointing the agency’s attention to various abuses arising from political partisanship and unprofessional conduct at the two stations.
He listed the alleged directive by Governor Ayo Fayose to ban paid APC adverts and jingles in the stations with Olayinka turning the stations to his boss’ megaphone to malign senior citizens and political opponents.
“The stations in one of their news bulletins in November accused the Chief Judge, Mr. Justice Ayodeji Daramola, of collecting N200 million from APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to influence the judge sitting on Fayose’s eligibility case to rule against him.
“About the same time, an allegation that the 19 APC House of Assembly members demanded N135million from the governor was also broadcast on the stations. All these were without evidence,” Olatubosun explained.
He added that in another news bulletin, the chief judge was accused of collecting N20 million from Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration to prevent Fayose’s inauguration, noting that in January, the stations broadcast the allegation that Fayemi donated N1.5 billion to Buhari/ Osinbajo Campaign Organisation without any proof.
Olatubosun said: “The stations also accused Fayemi of an attempt to transfer N950 million from a bank in Ghana but which the Ghana Central Bank stopped.
“These are all lies aimed at denting the image of these decent Ekiti citizens.
“The BSES is in the habit of copying social media gossips and broadcasting same in the stations’ news bulletins.”
The APC spokesman also accused Olayinka of unprofessional conduct by approving fabricated stories for the private producers and presenters of a popular Yoruba newspaper review programme, Lati Inu Aka.
