Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State has suspended his Senior Special Assistant on Print Media, Mr. Wale Ajetunmobi, following a controversial tweet about the aftermath of the 2020 #EndSARS protests.
The suspension was confirmed in a statement issued on Tuesday by Gboyega Akosile, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity. Akosile said the decision was necessitated by Ajetunmobi’s misrepresentation of facts on his personal “X” account.
“The Governor wishes to state categorically that his administration frowns at any form of extrajudicial punishment and will not be a part of any such action. That is not who we are. That is not our way,” Akosile said.
The suspension follows a report published by an online media outlet on Sunday, November 24, 2024, highlighting a tweet from Ajetunmobi’s handle, #Riddwane, in which he claimed that those who participated in the arson of Television Continental (TVC) during the #EndSARS protests had been “hunted down and executed.”
In the controversial tweet, Ajetunmobi alleged that one of the executed individuals was a young boy who sold cooking gas in the Ketu area of Lagos and was reportedly found with an AK-47 rifle.
His tweet read: “The full story of people who burnt down TVC in 2020 will be told one day, with gory clips and images. One thing to note: majority of them have been hunted down and executed. One of them, a young boy trading in cooking gas around Ketu, was found with an AK-47 at the site. Even his neighbours were shocked. But the full gist is better saved for later.”