Fury As Oyo Rep Member Chases Journalists Out Of COVID-19 Public Hearing

A member of the House of Representatives from Oyo state, Adedeji Stanley Olajide on Friday threw caution to the wind and assumed the status of a bouncer chasing journalists out of a public hearing at the National Assembly, Abuja.

The lawmaker who represents Ibadan south west/north west federal constituency displayed the “garage mentality ” Friday at the public hearing  organised by the House of Representatives ad hoc committee on COVID-19 on the need to investigate medical research in the fight against COVID-19 and other diseases in Nigeria.

The event was attended by the minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, minister of state for health, Senator Olorunimbe  Mamora , the director general of NCDC, Dr. Ihekweani and other heads of agencies and parastatals in the ministry of health.

 

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It all started while the hearing was ongoing, a member of the ad hoc committee observed that the meeting room was becoming  crowded and sought the directive of the chairman of the committee, Hon. Haruna Mshelia (APC, Borno) to control the number of people at the venue.

Consequently, Hon. Haruna Mshelia instructed that no one should be allowed into the hall again so that social distancing could be maintained.

“Please, we have the minister of health with us here and we have to adhere strictly to the PTF social distancing recommendations. So, Sergeant at arms, please, open the doors but dont allow any more people to come in.

“Let’s just maintain the number we have in the hall. Hon. Colleague, your observation is sustained”, Hon. Mshelia stated.

But instead of preventing more people from entering the hall, Stanley Olajide, a member of the House Committee on Covid-19 arrogated to himself the functions of a security man and started walking out guests and journalists out of the hall.

Akinjide ordered the sergeant at arms to drag out any guest or journalists who dares to question his unparliamentary and hostile behaviour towards them.

His actions led to a protest by the journalists at the venue, who all worked out of the investigation and threatened to leave.

Following this, two members of the ad hoc committee, Hon. Edun Olarenwaju from Ogun State and Hon. Aniekan Umannah from Akwa Ibom intervened and pleaded with the journalists to forget about the embarrassment and continue with the coverage of the investigation.

Most of the journalists refused to return to the hall.