The lawmaker
representing Ekiti North Senatorial District at the National Assembly,
Ayo Arise, has called for the National Broadcasting Commission to
sanction the Ekiti State Broadcasting Service. Mr Arise claimed that
the broadcasting station announced that he (Arise) lost in Ido/Osi,
Oye, Moba and Ikole Local Governments in the National Assembly
elections that were cancelled by the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) even when the elections were ongoing.
Addressing a press
conference yesterday in Ado Ekiti, the federal lawmaker and the PDP
Senatorial candidate in Ekiti North, maintained that the NBC must take
a punitive stand against the station in the interest of democracy.
The senator, who is
the Chairman, House Committee on Privatisation, said it was a flagrant
abuse of ethics of broadcasting for the broadcasting station to be
announcing stage-managed results of elections that were inconclusive
and subsequently cancelled by the electoral commission.
He said such
misuse of the media is capable of derailing the nascent democracy. “How
can a station go ahead and announce the results of elections that have
not been concluded ? It is against the NBC Code of ethics and the 2011
Electoral Acts, so the station must be punished. Mr Arise said.
More allegations
He also alleged
that suspected party thugs had in recent times laid siege to his
country home at Oye Ekiti, in Oye Local Government Area of the state,
brandishing dangerous weapons like guns, cutlasses and axes to
terrorise and chase away his supporters.
The senator also
threatened to resist attempt being made by some politicians to drag the
name of the traditional ruler of Oye Ekiti, Oba Oluwole Ademolaju, in
the mud over his support for him.
Mr Arise accused
members of an opposition political party as the mastermind of the
dangerous plot against him, saying the measure was taken to demoralise
his people and cause chaos in the community ahead of Saturday’s
elections.
He advised the state governor, Kayode Fayemi, who is also from Oye
Council Area against using the state machinery to intimidate the
opposition, to forestall the breakdown of law and order in the state.
