By Damilare Adeleye
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has suspended his Senior Special Assistant on Print Media, Wale Ajetunmobi.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Tuesday by the governor’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Gboyega Akosile.
Ajetunmobi’s suspension “comes on the heels of the misrepresentation of facts on his personal X account on a past incident,” the explained.Ajetunmobi reportedly said some arsonists who touched the Television Continental (TVC) head office in Lagos during the #EndSARS protest in 2020 were “hunted and executed.”
There were allegations of extra judicial killings during the protest most especially at the Lekki tollgate.
The Lagos State Judicial Panel on #EndSARS and police brutality had indicted Sanwo-Olu in the brutal intervention of the Nigerian Army at Lekki Toll Gate on October 20.
Also, the Nigerian Army was indicted in the panel’s report, but the state government rejected the report.
More than four years after the incident, Ajetunmobi, in a post on X, said that the majority of the arsonists who set TVC head office on fire have been “hunted and executed.”
“The full story of people who burnt down TVC in 2020 will be told one day, with gory clips and images. One thing to note: majority of them have been hunted down and executed.
“One of them, a young boy trading in cooking gas around Ketu, was found with AK-47 at the site. Even his neighbours were shocked. But the full gist is better saved for later,” he said.
His posts now deleted have been generating comments on the social media.
Reacting to the tweet, an X user identified as Hamlad, tweeting as #hamoye4real, asked, “Are you in the know of extra-judicial killings?”
In his response, the suspended aide wrote, “Lol… you want to create a narrative in your head. What is extra-judicial killing here? Some of the people were chased by soldiers and an exchange of fire occurred. Then arsonists were overpowered and killed in the process. Others ran away. Is that an extra-judicial killing to you?”
However, in a tweet by Ajetunmobi early Tuesday at 2:34 am — two days after the report, and quoting the Premium Times report on his X handle, he clarified that while the word “executed” was “erroneously used,” his tweet was his “personal opinion” and didn’t reflect the stance of his employer or his office.
He also stated that “no extra-judicial killing was insinuated.”
The tweet read, “This excerpt was quoted out of context and there were series of comments made under the same post, which better explained what was intended. Like I did further explained in the said tweet, no extra-judicial killing was insinuated. The word ‘executed’ was erroneously used and not intended in the context of that casual conversation.
“What was written in the entire conversation reflected personal opinion and not the position of any authority or the entity in which I work. The post and other comments had been taken down, even before this publication.”
