By Joyce Remi-Babayeju
Lere Olayinka,Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, to the FCT Minister, Barr. Nyesom Wike, has reiterated that the Minister will not be distracted by the noise of “Yahoo Yahoo” professional scammers and hustlers who are masquerading as activists.
Spokesperson to the FCT Minister in a statement issued on Saturday said most of those patronizing several social media platforms to speak against the FCT Minister were doing so because he ignored them and is making the “Yahoo Yahoo” antics through which they have sustained themselves to fail..
Olayinka in an analogy noted that it is fruitless to wrestle with pigs because at the end of the fight it will be difficult to differentiate between the sane minds and the pig or to dignify them.
“Therefore, as a matter of principle, we won’t dignify some people with any response.
“This is more so that we know how a certain emergency activist diverted election money to purchase a petrol station. We know how some so-called activists have fought themselves over protest money, including the one in 2019.”
“In 2016, when I was contesting for the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) National Publicity Secretary, someone approached me, telling me that there will be a lot of money to be made if I emerge. He said all I needed was for us to work together and that he would be the one to source for information to be used to issue press statements against public office holders. His would be to approach the public office holders concerned and get money out for us.”
“Today, that fellow is one of those parading themselves as activists. Therefore, we won’t dignify them.”
Speaking further, Olayinka said,”The style of these hustlers masquerading as activists has always been the same. They will threaten and blackmail you by making noise in the media or organizing protests against you. They will be the same people that will arrange for someone to approach you so that the ‘activists’ can be reached and that they can help. The moment you agree, they will come back with bills that you must pay, and once you pay, they move on to another target, in most cases, public office holders.
“There are some whose area of core competence is to organize press conferences for or against, and get paid.”
“Unfortunately for these hustler-activists, Wike is not one who plays that kind of game, and that’s the reason they are frustrated.
“Therefore, for us, they will shout, shout and shout tire, the Minister will keep ignoring them and focusing on his jobs, delivery of which can be seen across the FCT.”
On the issue of grabbing lands, Olayinka challenged those making such allegations to provide evidence of lands owned by anyone, that the FCT Minister grabbed.
“If supposed educated people are going about calling removal of shanties that are posing security threats to the people land grabbing, obviously, their education is a waste.”
“People just saw lands that are not occupied and moved there without authorization from anyone. Under the trees, they built houses with planks, covering them with tarpaulin.”
“For instance, when the FCT Minister visited the shanty in Wuye, which shared a fence with a residential estate and is close to a rail-line, the occupants were honest enough to admit that they had no authority from anyone to live there. They also admitted that previous governments had cleared the shanty 21 times and that the recent one was the 22nd time.
“The occupants’only request from the FCT Ministry is for them to be relocated to somewhere else, and a meeting was held with their representatives on Tuesday.
“So if this is what our hustler-activists are referring to as land grabbing, I pity those who still see them as educated,” he said.
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