•Oshotimehin Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Poultry farmers in Oyo State last week besieged the “Splash FM, a metropolitan private radio station in Ibadan, Oyo State, in protest of the continued airing of an advert message sensitizing the Nigerian public on bird flu.

The farmers, acting under the aegis of the, complained that the message, which is aired about six times during prime belt on the station daily is affecting their businesses, as they claimed that sales of poultry products including chicken and eggs, had dropped significantly in the last four to six months that the message had been on the air.

Sources told Daily Sun that the irate farmers threatened to destroy the transmitting station located at Premeir Hotel, Mokola hilltop, Ibadan, unless the station stopped the perceived offensive message.
The Advertisement itself which comes in both English and Yoruba languages is a short drama featuring a married couple. The wife is preparing a chicken dinner for her farmished husband, who is very  impatient to have the meal. He urges his wife to bring the chicken which is partly cooked.
But his spouse insists on having the chicken well cooked and done to prevent falling victim of avian flu infection.

The Message, Daily Sun learnt, is commissioned by an international development agency concerned about the series of outbreak of the fatal disease which killed both human and and birds fast in the country in recent times.
It is being handled for the sponsors by Initiatives Media, a Lagos-based advertising firm.
The station’s General Manager, Mr. Pekun Oloyede said that the station has not stopped the campaign, even as he condemned the attack by the poultry farmers.

He told Daily Sun “What they are fighting for is not right. The campaign did not say that people should not buy or eat chicken. All it did was to conscentize people on the need to cook it properly.
“It is to tell our sceptical audience that bird flu is real in Nigeria. This is a disease that kills children, adults and just anyone infected. All we are saying is that even those who keep chicken in their households need to take extra care.

“All we are doing is public service. Even you’ll notice that one of the characters in the advert said “E ba n gbe wa be jare (Just bring it half cooked like that). SO, the advert does not affect them as they claimed people still eat chicken, at least I still do. If not why we have eateries not accomplained?”
The radio station boss said management had since sent reporters out to confirm the claims of the poultry farmers and found them to be untrue.

He said the attack was surprising as Splash Fm was not the only media house running the advert campaign. A female executive official of Initiative Media, simply identified as Adah refused to name the foreign sponsor of the adverty campaign or comment on the incident.

She, however, disclosed that officials of the organization were aware of the development and would be arriving the country on Thursday, (yesterday) to address a press conference on the issue.
But a member of PFAN, Mrs. Bukola Olutayo, allged that the advert is being sponsored by a prominent poultry farmer who has opened large poultry farms in the North West and SouthWest. The intention is to run us aground and pave way for his farms to grow and prosper.

“We believe the advert is also in connivance with some government officials to corner votes to be allocated for the fight of imagenary bird flu. It is another way mis-managing public funds”.