Embattled Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Yinka Ayefele Music House, Yinka Ayefele has explained why his Music House was demolished by the Governor Abiola Ajimobi led Oyo State Government.
The ace musician speaking on Monday in an exclusive interview with TNG through his manager, David Ajiboye said the demolished building did not contravene any building plan/law as made to believe.
Ajiboye insisted that the demolition was an act of witch hunt for not supporting the government.
Recall that the demolished building houses Ayefele’s Fresh FM, Studio and other business outfits. It is valued at N800m. It was partially bulldozed on Sunday morning.
Nothing has changed, we are still broadcasting
Asked how the demolition has affected operations of the station, Ajiboye said the station was still broadcasting though from a different location.
“Fresh FM is on air. They demolished the building and we relocated our studio to another place.
This radio station is sophisticated and all our presenters can present from anywhere in the world. During the US elections, we were live in the US and we broadcast live from the US. We can broadcast anywhere without necessarily converging in a particular place.”
Ayefele unruffled by demolition
Ajiboye further clarified that the chairman of the station, Yinka Ayefele was taking the demolition easy. He said the demolition was strictly political and not because of ignoring warnings or breaking any law as government made people to believe.
“He is taking it very easy. He is not bothered about it because we know the state government is only witch-hunting us. It is political; we know if we had committed any offence, the NBC would have sanctioned us. We have not committed any offence.
They want us to change some of our programmes and some of our analysts. We told the commissioner that this is an independent radio station and you can’t do that. If we run afoul of the broadcasting code, the NBC would have sanctioned us. They can only control a state government owned station, not Fresh FM”.
Recounting the losses
Ajiboye explained that a recently purchased N28million broadcasting equipment and other important materials were destroyed in the demolition. He also reiterated that the building was valued at over N800million. He said the station had over 200 staff on its payroll and the livelihood of some them might be threatened as a result of the demolition.
“That building that was demolished is valued at over N800million. We just purchased 28million broadcast equipment destroyed yesterday during the demolition. This is a company that has provided jobs more than 200 people.
We thank Nigerians for their support and they should see this as political witch-hunting. The governor said in 2016 when he visited the station that some politicians want him to demolish the building because Ayefele is not in their support. All what they are saying is just cooked up stories. We have all legal documents backing the land, we have not contravened any building plan or building law,” Ajibade explained.
Overwhelming show of love for Ayefele
It was an emotional scene on Sunday as fans of Ayefele and lovers of the radio station besieged the site of the demolition. Ajibade insisted that the sympathy shown the station during the crisis showed the people were against the tyrannical traits of Gov Ajimobi.
“You needed to be there yesterday to come and see a lot of people. The road linking from Lagos to Ibadan up to Guru Maraji’s side was on lock down. There was no vehicular movement for almost eight hours. People were angry, wanting to destroy government property. It took Yinka Ayefele going on air to pacify the people. All APC posters, billboards were destroyed. He had to go on air to calm frayed nerves.
Next line of action
Some few days before the demolition exercise, the station sued the government with the hope obtaining a court injunction to stop the case but the case was postponed.
Asked what the station is doing next, Ajiboye said: “We are in court already, we went to the court today and their counsel denied that the government doesn’t know anything about it, the government and the governor are not aware of it. When in actual fact that the commissioner of information said the bulldozer has been in front of our office for the past three days. They have contracted themselves so it’s good for us. We are not losing sleep over this.
They brought a letter on Monday, a demolition notice. They gave us three days and If tey are so sure of themselves that what they are doing is right, why did they have to come and demolish at 4:am in the morning”.
Oyo Govt denies knowledge of demolition
Meanwhile, the Oyo State Government in a reaction to the incident on Monday said it was not aware of the demolition.
The state government, through its counsel, Mr Yomi Alliyu, made the denial when he appeared before Justice Iyabo Yerima of the State High Court, Ring Road, Ibadan, on Monday.
Alliyu appeared for the first and second defendants, Gov. Abiola Ajimobi and Mr Bola Abimbola (State Attorney-General), in a case instituted by Ayefele against the defendants.
The counsel said his clients were shocked to read about the reported demolition on Sunday morning.
According to him, the state government is planning to set up a panel of enquiry to find out those responsible for the demolition.
”My clients are men of honour that respect rule of law and constituted authority and will have no reason to demolish the said property,” he told the court.
Alliyu, who had earlier denied that his clients were served with court processes, quickly reversed himself when the judge showed him evidence of actual service on the first and second respondents.
The defence counsel, however, urged the court to adjourn the case pending the time the claimant would be able to file and serve his clients with notice of the ex-parte motion since the court was on vacation.
He said that filing of motion on notice and letter of urgency alone by the claimant was not enough.
But the claimant’s counsel, Mr Olayinka Bolanle, had informed the court that the respondents had gone ahead to demolish the structure in spite of a court’s restraining order
“Even after the defendants had become aware of this proceedings, it is sad and unbelievable my Lord that the defendants in the wee hours of Sunday, Aug 19, went to the property in dispute and demolished it,” he told the court.
The claimant’s counsel urged the court to reiterate its earlier order restraining the defendants from further demolition of the rest of the structure pending the determination of the suit.
Justice Yerima adjourned the case until Sept. 12 for hearing of applications and urged parties to file necessary processes before the adjourned date.