Date: 2019-05-08

Aggrieved staff members of Kwara State-owned media houses have described the Senior Special Assistant on Media to the state Governor, Abdulfatha Ahmed, Muyideen Akorede as a "vulgar liar."

In a statement jointly issued on behalf of the entire workers of Radio Kwara, Chairman of RATTAWU, Comrade Razaq Aremu, and the NUJ chapel chairman of the station, Alhaji Bashir Ademola Jimoh, the aggrieved workers frowned at the claims of Akorede during a program on private radio station in Ilorin at the weekend.

Workers of the three media houses, Radio Kwara, Kwara Television Service and The Herald newspaper had down tools to protest two months salary arrears and non- release of operation funds by the state government leading to epileptic services by the three organisations.

The statement reads: "While The Herald newspaper is battling debts owed suppliers of production materials which include newsprint and lithographic materials among others, the same situation applies to the two other broadcast stations also neck deep in debts running into millions of naira.

"As at December, last year total debts incurred by the three organisations amounted to over 30 million naira. Workers of the radio house also alleged that the AM transmitter was already comatose considering its current dwindling condition resulting from a damaged component affecting its capacity to transmit maximally."

They revealed that the "AM transmitter had dropped from 50 kilowatt to five kilowatt, which could lead to its complete damage, while the two Midland FM old transmitters were not working as a result of faulty components and the new transmitter got damaged due to lack of UPS."

"The development was brought to the attention of the state government through the Sole Administrator on several occasions but without responsive reaction to address the pathetic situation facing the station generally."

The workers challenged Dr. Akorede to tell the whole world the impact of the so-called repositioning project of the media houses by the government since 2016 without positive results.

While asking the good people of the state, elite and media to visit the three media houses to assess the quality of work done, the workers insisted that the relevant anti-graft agencies should wade in immediately to probe the purported repositioning project of the media houses which they suspect was shrouded in secrecy, lies, and deception to drain public funds and deliberately destroy the organisations.

The workers described the "sole administrator as not only a liar, but callous, arrogant and insensitive to the plights of the workers and the media houses."

"In September last year, workers of the radio house staged a peaceful protest demanding the removal of the sole administrator, while staff of The Herald newspaper started their strike last week to raise alarm over the deplorable and inhuman condition of their environment, with the Kwara Television remaining off air for some weeks now, despite assurance by the sole administrator that the three media houses will resume full operations last week," the statement added.