An aide to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has clarified that the minister’s controversial remark about Seun Okinbaloye was not a threat but a figurative expression.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Lere Olayinka, Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and Social Media to the minister, said the comment made during a media chat was taken out of context.
“the Minister never meant that he will shoot Seun Okinbaloye. They even spoke on phone today, and he (Okinbaloye) understood what the minister meant.”
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Olayinka explained that the remark reflected the minister’s frustration over what he perceived as a deviation from journalistic neutrality during a programme on Channels Television.
“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.”
He further noted that the minister had already clarified his position during the live programme, adding that the comment was understood in context by those present.
“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.”
Olayinka argued that continued criticism of the remark despite the clarification was unfair and misleading.
“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,” he said.