The All Progressives Congress in Ekiti State has voiced concern over alleged directive by Governor Ayodele Fayose banning all APC adverts and jingles on state radio and television stations.
The APC argued that it was illegal to stop the adverts that were fully paid for by clients.
The APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said in a statement that the practice was a bastardisation of media professional ethics and abuse of contract agreement between the stations and their clients.
Olatubosun criticized the governor’s aide on Public Communications, Lere Olayinka, for turning the stations into the personal property of his boss, arguing that before the latest ban on APC’s jingles, there had been many unprofessional practices by the stations, which were brought to the attention of the National Broadcasting Commission.
His words: “The stations have become a laboratory for manufacturing falsehoods against high ranking government officials in the Judiciary and Legislature perceived to be against Fayose’s administration.
“The stations in one of their news bulletins in November 2014 accused the Chief Judge, Mr. Justice Ayodeji Daramola, of collecting N200 million bribe 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, allegation that the 19 APC members of the House of Assembly demanded N135m from the governor was also broadcast on the stations. All these were without evidence.”
Olatubosun explained that in another news bulletin, the same Chief Judge was accused of collecting N20 million from Governor Kayode Fayemi’s administration to prevent Fayose’s inauguration, adding that in January 2015, the stations broadcast accusation that Fayemi donated N1.5 billion to Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation without any proof.
He added: “The stations also accused Dr. 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 through its Acting Director-General is in the habit of copying social media gossips and giving them to be broadcast in the stations’ news bulletins.”
The APC spokesman also accused Olayinka of habitual unprofessional conduct by approving fabricated stories for the private producers and presenters of a popular Yoruba newspaper review programme: Lati Inu Aka, to broadcast on their newspapers review programmes.
The statement added: “We condemn the ban on APC’s jingles on the order of Mr. Fayose who has become intolerant of the opposition. We wish to remind him that when he was in the opposition, his 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 now shut out of the stations because they hold different political views were the ones who contributed money for the take off of the stations when Fayose had not dreamt of contesting the governorship of the state.”
Olatunbosun alleged that while all jingles and rallies of the Peoples Democratic Party candidates were aired free of charge, BSES routinely prevented Ekiti State people from accessing information by skipping its news at 12noon and 3pm because of PDP presidential rallies.
Olatubosun urged the NBC to call Fayose and Olayinka to order, saying they must restore APC adverts without further delay, while equal airtime should be given to opposition parties on the state media.
He added that at the appropriate time, Ekiti State people would ask questions on the proceeds from the various jingles and live coverages of PDP’s rallies in the last two months.