Temitope Ajayi is the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.
He denied claims of advocating for the execution of Ushie Uguamaye, an NYSC member.
Uguamaye criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on social media, prompting Ajayi’s comments.
Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, has refuted claims that he advocated for the execution of Ushie Uguamaye, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member who recently criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on social media.
Ajayi clarified his stance following public outrage over his earlier comments, where he emphasized that Uguamaye should be subject to the appropriate disciplinary actions as stipulated in the NYSC code of conduct.
In a now-deleted Facebook post, Ajayi wrote:
“If she is not a corper, she can say whatever she fancies like people do per second. Citizens can abuse the living day out of their President or any public official. It is normal.”
He added:
“But a corper violated her oath and code of conduct here. That is capital punishment under NYSC. You can’t abuse the country you are serving as a corper under any guise and the symbol of sovereign authority, which is the president. She should be punished to the fullest extent, not just warned.”
In response to extensive criticism, Ajayi made a statement on Monday refuting claims that he had advocated for the corps member’s execution. He characterized these accusations as a deliberate distortion of his words.
“The mob get their oxygen from misrepresentations and delibrate mischief. I made comments under a post where I advertently wrote that what the lady corper did should attract capital punishment under NYSC which means her indiscretion should attract highest punishment under the NYSC scheme.
“The highest punishment under NYSC is expulsion. There was a follow-up comment under same thread where I provided the context in my usage of capital punishment under NYSC as a metaphor. The follow-up comment that explained the previous comment was ignored.
“It is common sense that there is no death penalty anywhere as punishment under NYSC law.”
