Adedokun Waliyu 
The police in Ekiti State on Wednesday arraigned Lere Olayinka, media aide to former Governor Ayodele Fayose, before an Ado Ekiti Chief Magistrate’s Court for alleged abuse of office, stealing and fraud during the last Peoples Democratic Party administration in the state.
The police prosecutor, Inspector Johnson Okunade, told the court that the defendant committed the offence between 2014 and 2018 at Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State at Ilokun in Ado-Ekiti.
Okunade alleged that “the defendant, who was the spokesman of the former Governor of Ekiti State, as a public officer, abused his office when he failed to remit the commercial revenue which accrued to the BSES totalling N13.5m to the coffers of Ekiti State Government.”
He also alleged that “the defendant, being the director-general of BSES, abused his office when he authorised travelling allowance totalling N7m in his name for journeys not embarked on.”
Okunade also alleged that “the defendant also stole N13.5m belonging to the BSES for his own personal use.
The prosecutor noted that the alleged offences contravened sections 104, 390(5) and 419 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.
Okunade, however, asked the court for adjournment to enable him to study the case file and present his witnesses.
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Counsel for the defendant, Mr Kolapo Kolade, a former Attorney General of Ekiti State, urged the court to grant his client bail, with a promise that he would not jump bail.
The chief magistrate, Adesoji Adegboye, granted bail to the defendant in the sum of N1m with two sureties in like sum.
Adegboye, who adjourned the case until April 27 for hearing, said that “one of the sureties must be a community leader, while the second must produce a proof of landed ownership.”
However, in his reaction, Olayinka described his detention by the police and arraignment for alleged fraud as the usual political persecution that would neither intimidate nor silence him.
The former governor’s media aide said in a statement that it was funny that the same way he was persecuted, arrested, detained and tried for sedition in 2012 during the first tenure of Dr Kayode Fayemi was the way he was being persecuted now.
