By Omeiza Ajayi

Following pockets of criticisms regarding the ongoing clearance of illegal structures in the Federal Capital Territory FCT, Lere Olayinka, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media to the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, has reiterated that the Minister will not give attention to “professional scammers and hustlers” masquerading as activists.

In a statement issued Saturday in Abuja, Olayinka said most of those jumping from one social media platform to the other speaking against the FCT Minister were doing so because he ignored them and their “Yahoo Yahoo” antics.

He said; “While growing up as a child in the hilly town of Okemesi Ekiti, one of the lessons I learned from my grandfather was never to wrestle with pigs. He was constantly telling us that the danger of wrestling with a pig will be that at the end of the fight, sane minds won’t be able to differentiate between you and the pig you fought with.

“Therefore, as a matter of principle, we won’t dignify some people with any response.

“This is more so that we know how a certain emergency activist diverted election money to purchase a petrol station. We know how some so-called activists have fought themselves over protest money, including the one in 2019.

“In 2016, when I was contesting for the Peoples Democratic Party PDP National Publicity Secretary, someone approached me, telling me that there will be a lot of money to be made if I emerge. He said all I needed was for us to work together and that he would be the one to source for information to be used to issue press statements against public office holders. His would be to approach the public office holders concerned and get money out for us.

“Today, that fellow is one of those parading themselves as activists. Therefore, we won’t dignify them.”

Speaking further, Olayinka said; “The style of these hustlers masquerading as activists has always been the same. They will threaten and blackmail you by making noise in the media or organizing protests against you. They will be the same people who will arrange someone to approach you that the ‘activists’ can be reached and that they can help. The moment you agree, they will come back with bills that you must pay, and once you pay, they move on to another target, in most cases, public office holders.

“There are some whose area of core competence is to organize press conferences for or against, and get paid.

“Unfortunately for this hustler-activists, Wike is not one who plays that kind of game, and that is the reason they are frustrated.

“Therefore, for us, they will shout, shout and shout tire, the Minister will keep ignoring them and focusing on his job, delivery of which can be seen across the FCT.”

On the issue of grabbing lands, Olayinka challenged those making such allegations to provide evidence of lands owned by anyone, that the FCT Minister grabbed.

“If supposed educated people are going about calling removal of shanties that are posing security threats to the people land grabbing, obviously, their education is a waste.

“People just saw lands that are not occupied and moved there without authorization from anyone. Under the trees, they built houses with planks, covered them with tarpaulin.

“For instance, when the FCT Minister visited the shanty in Wuye, which shared fence with a residential estate and is close to a rail-line, the occupants were honest enough to admit that they had no authority from anyone to live there. They also admitted that previous governments had cleared the shanty 21 times and that the recent one was the 22nd time.

“The occupants’s only request from the FCT Administration is for them to be relocated to somewhere else, and a meeting was held with their representatives on Tuesday.

“So if this is what our hustler-activists are referring to as land grabbing, I pity those who still see them as educated,” he said.