Osun State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party has condemned the deployment of two journalists working with the State Broadcasting Corporation to teaching service and alleged that it was an attempt to witch hunt the affected journalists ahead of the governorship election in the state.
The opposition party described the development as another sign of the state government’s desperation to create fear in the hearts of newsmen working in the State Radio and Television services and prevent them from performing their roles as neutral stakeholders ahead of the governorship election.
In a release issued on Sunday by the Chairman of the party, Hon Soji Adagunodo, the PDP said the decision of the State government to redeploy the State chairperson of the National Association of Women Journalists , Mrs Motunrayo Ayegbayo, the chairman of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, Mr Adeyemi Aboderin and two other journalists to the classrooms runs against common sense and global best practices.
The statement recalled that these journalists have built a career ranging from between 12 and 20 years as reporters and news editors in the service of the State broadcasting corporation who will find it difficult or even impossible to learn new roles as effective classroom teachers in public schools.
Hon Adagunodo described the argument that the affected journalists had earlier qualifications in the education sector as untenable in view of the fact that most of the worlds most successful journalists had earlier qualifications in other disciplines which did not disturb them from excelling in the Media industry.
According to the PDP chairman,”these are men and women who have attended many professional courses apart from gaining significant cognate experience on the job over the years”
The State PDP suspects that the affected journalists are deliberate targets of the state government as a result of their adherence to ethical practice which may not allow for praise singing and sycophancy which the State broadcasting service is getting notorious for.
” We recall that a few other staffers of the OSBC have been subject to arbitrary suspension and issuance of reprimand for their professional forthrightness and independent mindedness in the recent past”
The Party therefore called on the management of the OSBC to immediately rescind this decision which it argued has no place in the Stations scheme of service.
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