Our correspondent gathered that the two journalists, who were working with the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation were redeployed to the classrooms in a letter issued by the Office of the Head of Service in the state.
The development was a subject of discussion among journalists in the state on Sunday as the Osun State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists started its week with a church service having attended a Jumat service on Friday.
Some of the journalists blamed the redeployment on alleged intolerance of the state government, saying Ayegbayo was redeployed because NAWOJ under her leadership had been giving governorship aspirants from the opposition parties the opportunities to air their views at the NAWOJ fora.
But the Chairman of the OSBC, Mr. Kola Akanji, when contacted on the telephone by our correspondent, said he would ensure that the Head of Service reversed the redeployment of the journalists.
Akanji said the letters of redeployment were brought to the station late on Friday and that he had been trying to speak to the HoS on the issue but had not got through to him.
He expressed the confidence that the issue would be resolved when work resumes on Tuesday because the state government had declared Monday a work-free day to enable the workers to collect their permanent voter cards.
Akanji said, “For some time, the governor has been working to redeploy all those who read Education back to the classrooms but ours is a little bit different. I have been trying to get the HoS to explain certain things to him.
“There are some who read Education but who had gone for training in journalism and broadcasting, we are trying to see him to tell him that. Like this NAWOJ chairperson, she is an on-air personality and if that person is redeployed, it is a minus for us. Where are we going to get another on-air personality to replace her and even Yeni Aboderin?
“They just compiled the names and I am sure they didn’t know who and who are affected. But I will speak to the HoS on Tuesday and I am sure that it will be resolved.”
Meanwhile, the Peoples Democratic Party in the state has described the redeployment of the journalists to the state teaching service commission as another sign of the state government’s desperation to create fear in the hearts of newsmen working in government establishments ahead of the 2018 governorship poll.
PUNCH NEWSPAPER
