‘Hunted Down and Executed’ — The X Post That Earned Sanwo-Olu’s Aide Wale Ajetunmobi a Suspension

‘Hunted Down and Executed’ — The X Post That Earned Sanwo-Olu’s Aide Wale Ajetunmobi a Suspension

On Tuesday, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, the governor of Lagos State, suspended Wale Ajetunmobi, his Senior Special Assistant on Print Media.

The suspension, which was made public on Tuesday, followed a controversial post Ajetunmobi had made on his official X account on Saturday.

In the now-deleted post, Ajetunmobi had claimed that the majority of individuals allegedly involved in the burning of Television Continental (TVC) during a protest had been “hunted down and executed”.

“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,” Adetunmobi had posted.

“One of them, a young boy trading in cooking gas around Ketu, was found with AK-47 at the site. Even his neighbours were shocked. But the full gist is better saved for later.”

Following the media aide’s post, an X user with the handle @hamoye4real then asked:

“Are you in the know of extra-judicial killings?”

Ajetunmobi responded to the question, saying:

“You want to create a narrative in your head. What is extrajudicial killing here? Some of the people were chased by soldiers and exchange of fire occurred. Then arsonists were overpowered and killed in the process. Others ran away. Is that an extra-judicial killing to you?”

More critically, the official statement from the office of the governor did not categorically state whether Ajetunmobi’s suspension was temporary or indefinite.

The statement also failed to state whether the aide would be investigated by the police for making a post that suggested that lives were taken during the #EndSARS period through extra-judicial means.