From Lateef Dada, Osogbo

Immediate past governor of Osun State, Adegboyega Oyetola, yesterday said report alleging him of looting government house was orchestrated because it failed the test of balance and fairness in journalism.

Media aide to Oyetola, Ismail Omipidan, who spoke to journalists at the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Osogbo, said the report was not only one-sided, but also unprofessional and arranged to suit the purpose it was used for.

Flanked by he immediate past Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Adeleke Adebayo, Omipidan wondered why Osun State Broadcasting Corporation (OSBC),that Oyetola allowed to operate professionally could be used to embarrass journalism profession by doing a report and not bothered to balance it or go by the cliche of “all efforts to get reaction proved abortive.”

He explained that an inventory was conducted in the company of DSS officials who were attached to the government house at the time and security operatives attached to the new governor, particularly A. Umale and Pius Akpan.

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According to Omipidan, the DSS report entitled: “Inventory of Items in Osun State Governor’s and Presidential Lodges,” shows that nothing suggests that any of the items in the buildings was carted away, as all were intact at the time of handing over.”

Omipidan accused the spokesperson to Governor Ademola Adeleke, Olawale Rasheed, of not being professional for appearing as sponsor in the ‘stage-managed’ report.

Reading the items in the inventory, Omipidan said, “if there was any looting as being claimed by the agents of the new government, then we should look in their direction.

“They cannot take over, and then come to raise alarm 72 hours later that there was looting in the same place where they held their inauguration party on Sunday, November 27. If they think this is how to pay a man who gave his all for four years so that Osun could be back to reckoning, God our creator, who is not a God of hypocrisy, will pay them in their coin appropriately,” Omipidan added.