Special Report: Illegality At OSBC,  As Top Officials Demoted Without Due Process

The greatest aspirations of any civil or public servant is to rise to the pinnacle of career progression, becoming a director of a Department or the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry.

However,  nothing is more catastrophic and devastating than for a  civil servant who had worked dutifully and relentlessly  all his service years and rose to become a Director to be suddenly summoned to an emergency board meeting and be  informed of his/her demotion without offence,  claiming “executive fiat” from the office of the Governor.

This is a scenario currently playing out at the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, (OSBC) Ile-Awiye, Osogbo as five Directors were recently demoted to Deputy Directors base on alleged directive from the Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.

CityMirrorNews investigation  revealed that the affected personnel have   committed no offence as there were no any allegation or offence leveled against the demoted officers contrary to lay down public service rule.

It was exclusively gathered that  the Chairman, Interim Management Committee of OSBC, Mr Kola Akanji and his management team  on April 10, 2018, invited all Directors and Deputy Directors to a meeting, where it was told that Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola  had instructed the Chairman, and  the Director General , Mr Wale Idowu , to collapse the eleven Directorates of OSBC to five  in order to reduce cost.

Initially, those affected by this strange demotion were Pastor Kehinde Olunlade, who had served as a Director for five years from November 2012 to 2017 in several capacities and departments, Barr (Mrs) Abimbola Babatunde, Mrs Grace Akinwale and Mr Lukman Adediran.

In all, four Directors were affected and a few Deputy Directors in the seeming demotion exercise. One of the demoted directors, Lukman  Adediran had retired, while another official,  Grace Akinwale had been fixed as a Director in the Ministry of Culture and Tourism with Pastor Kehinde Olunlade and Barr (Mrs) Abimbola Babatunde currently serving as Deputy Directors, and regrettably under a few of their former subordinate officers.

CityMirrorNews further deduced  that the affected officers helplessly resorted to fate,  with serious resentment against the Governor; they however find out that that the Governor did not approve anything of such.

It was learnt that the Governor and the Head of Service, Dr Olowogboyega Oyebade were later informed about the action with no clear cut endorsement from the duo.

Two other Directors , Mrs Bose Bamigboye and Sola Ajiboye were later affected by the demotion spree.

Meanwhile,  by December this year, one of them, Pastor Kehinde Okunlade, who is also the chairman, Christian Community OSBC, will retire from service as a Deputy Director if nothing meaningful is done to quickly  right the wrong.

Few Deputy Directors demoted  to Assistant  Directors include ; Mr Wale Ladipupo, Alhaji Adesoye Awodeji, Sola Ajiboye currently serve as the Head of the Station, Reality Television instead of Director of the station service, while Bose Bamigboye is at head of New dawn television,  with no clear designation.

It should be recalled that the state government had merged the administration of Reality Radio Television service under the preview of OSBC osogbo, before now,  it had its own Director General and other Directorates.

It was discovered in the course of investigation that any Staff that crosses the  path of  some ‘Oga’ will definitely ends up at either Reality Radio Television Station, Iwo or New Dawn Television, Ibokun depending on the magnitude of the offense.

Both Iwo and Ibokun Stations are known to be a concentration camp of dissenting voices in the system,  making OSBC management  a government in a government.

In conclusion, affected officers  who have kept mute  until now are appealing to government to address  their plight. They have been serving with sincerity of purpose, honestly, and dedication to duty, obviously they deserve the best of treatment and not victimisation through acrobatic demotion and punitive transfer.