“Ekiti state owned media houses have been banned from airing APC adverts”

The APC in Ekiti state has accused the governor of the state, Ayo Fayose, of banning adverts and jingles of the party from being aired on state-owned media.

According to the APC Publicity Secretary Taiwo Olatubosun, in a statement yesterday, the ban by the governor which is being implemented by his aide on public communications, Lere Olayinka, is a bastardisation of media ethics and abuse of the contract agreement between the stations and their clients.

He said: “The stations have become a laboratory for manufacturing falsehoods against government officials perceived to be against the Fayose administration.

“The stations in a news bulletin last November accused the Chief Judge, Justice Ayodeji Daramola, of collecting N200 million from APC National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to influence the judge presiding over Fayose’s eligibility case.

“About the same time, an allegation that the 19 APC members of the House of Assembly demanded N135 million from the governor was also aired on the stations. All these were without evidence.”

The APC spokesman said in another news bulletin, Justice Daramola was accused of collecting N20 million from former Governor Kayode Fayemi to stop Fayose’s inauguration.

“Last month, the stations aired a report that Fayemi donated N1.5 billion to Buhari/ Osinbajo Campaign Organisation without any proof.

“The stations also accused Fayemi of an attempt to transfer N950 million from a Ghanaian bank which the Ghana Central Bank stopped.  These are all lies aimed at denting the image of decent Ekiti citizens.

“We condemn the ban on APC jingles. We wish to remind the governor that when he was in the opposition, jingles and adverts for his campaign rallies, which he paid for, were aired regularly on the stations.

“We want to remind Fayose that the prominent Ekiti citizens who he has shut out of the stations because they hold different political views were the ones who facilitated the take off of the stations.”

Olatubosun urged the National  Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to call Fayose and Olayinka to order, saying they must restore APC adverts without delay while equal airtime should be given to opposition parties on the state media.

Denying the allegation, Olayinka said the state-owned media was still receiving adverts and jingles from opposition politicians in as much as they were ready to pay the rate.

Olayinka said: “The allegation is not true, we have been using their adverts and jingles in as much as they are ready to pay the rate.

“Even this morning, if you listened to the stations, we still carried the jingles and adverts of the APC candidates.