Journalist Lere Olayinka detained,brutalized by Ekiti Governor security aides..London Based Group decries arrest

Report by Jon Apo.
The Ekiti Government House detachment of the Police on the orders of the state Governor Kayode Fayemi abducted and brutalized Mr Lere Olayinka a journalist and Media Aide to PDP South West Chairman and former Governor chief Segun Oni.He was later taken to the Police headquarters and detained since Monday .His offence:Olayinka posted a news item on the Face book of Ekiti Unity Forum of the mass boycott of the StateTeachers of the Ekiti state Government imposed Teachers Assessment tests which have been a point of disagreement between teachers and the state Government who saw the examination as a ploy to retrench the teachers.The examination had been called off thrice owing to the boycott but the Governor insisted all teachers must take the examination on Monday 8 October ,and the teachers mimed irately declared a strike.However Olayinka reported on the facebook that some handful of teachers had broken ranks to take the exam while most teachers boycotted .The news report,angered the Governor who ordered his Government House security to apprehend the media aide.The policemen according to eyewitness account swooped on a restaurant where Olayinka was having a meal and attempted to forcibly abduct him and his resistance led to his brutalisation which left him in a state of coma (picture attached)He was later revived and detained in the police headquarters Ado Ekiti.

.....The news that Got Ekiti Governor angry"
#Fayemi's Tipatikuuku Teachers' Competency Test failed again!#

For d 4th time, Teachers in Ekiti State defied Gomina Fayemi's order. No one is writing his Competency Test slated today. I just left Ola-Oluwa Muslim Grammar Sch, Ado-Ekiti, the place is being manned by GUN-WIELDING MOPOL with some teachers "gisting" directly opposite d School. The teachers are also raining curse and abuses on Gomina Fayemi and d ASUSS Chairman, who directed that its members shuld write d exam as against d NUT directive.

Scoreline now is:
Ekiti Teachers Bombers 4
Fayemi Crawlers 0
And now that d Tipatikuuku Competency Test has failed, when is the Consultant handling d project returning the over N200m it collected?"....

Meanwhile,a London based nongovernmental Organisation,Transparency and Justice International Network, has decried the detention and brutalisation of a journalist and media aide to PDP National Vice Chairman SW,Mr Lere Olayinka ,describing it as antithetical to democracy and free speech.In its online reaction to news of the arrest of Olayinka by policemen attached to the Ekiti state Governor ,Kayode Fayemi the group said " we have read with grave disgust and dismay various reports of dictatorial,repressive and anti democratic actions of the Ekiti state Governor!Dr Fayemi which is embarrassing to all fair minded persons.It is appalling to note that a Governor who rose to power on the wings of activism and rule of law could be associated during his two year tenure with killing of opposition members ,harassment of labour unions, intimidation of the workforce, and indiscriminate arrests and brutalization of innocent journalists.It recalled that early in the regime, it's security network was implicated in the killing of one Awolumate ,while a pregnant lady was slaughtered in the open,during a local government crisis,

Fayemi by his ordering the arrest of a defenseless journalist for merely posting a news report on the Facebook is regrettably giving Nigeria a bad name as a country intolerant of opposing views and fundamental rights.The group said it was miffed that a Governor in the opposition group ACN "which had pretended to the international community as a body of democrats was unfortunately being exposed as repressive and oppressive of its citizenry as this unfortunate episode portends".

The group calls on the Inspector General of Police to order the unconditional release of Lere olayinka, forth with and that due process of law should be followed if he was found to have committed an offence by his news report

Report by John Apo