Wike’s Aide Clarifies Comment On Channels TV Anchor Seun Okinbaloye

Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has clarified one of the comments made by the Minister during his last monthly Media Chat, on Channels Television’s achor, Seun Okinbaloye, saying his principal only spoke figuratively.

Olayinka, in a statement on Saturday, said; “the Minister never meant that he will shoot Seun Okinbaloye. They even spoke on phone today, and he (Okinbaloye) understood what the minister meant.

He added that the Minister had already explained what he actually meant during the Friday’s live media chat, hence anyone who further choose to refer to the statement out of context would be only doing a ‘clear hatchet job’.

“What the minister meant, which he made clear during the media chat was that he was angry seeing Okinbaloye, whom he hold in high esteem as a journalist, descending into the political arena by speaking as an interested party, instead of an interviewer.

“The statement made by the Minister was in hyperbolic context, which was clearly without intent. It was primarily using exaggeration to make a point.

“Even after the Minister made the clarifications on the live television program, which had Chamberlain Uzor, Head of Channels Television’s Abuja Office as part of the interviewers, all the journalists who were interviewing him just laughed.

“Therefore, after the Minister detailed explanations of what he meant, including saying on the live television program that he didn’t mean that he will carry gun and shoot the television anchor, it will become a clear hatchet job for any individual or group to pick the statement out of context and make any issue out of it.

“The public is therefore urged to discontenance the use of the comment as instrument of blackmail and propaganda by those whose intent is to misrepresent facts for their political gains,” Olayinka stated.