Senate President Ahmad Lawan has sacked his special adviser on media and publicity Festus Adedayo 48 hours after his appointment. The Senate President had on Tuesday appointed Babagana Aji as his Chief of Staff as well as Festus Adedayo as his Media Adviser. The termination of Adedayo’s appointment came after a section of the All Progressives Congress (APC) members and loyalists of President Muhammadu Buhari raised objections to the appointment on grounds of Adedayo’s past criticisms of the Buhari administration.
No official reason was given for the sudden change of mind of the Senate President but Huhuonline.com learnt that the intense criticisms by Buhari’s supporters in the APC put the Senate President in a fix and eventually, he had to bow to the pressure. A one paragraph statement signed by the Senate President’s Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mohammed Isa, tagged “Senate President Reviews Adedayo’s Appointment” reads:
“The office of the President of the Senate has reviewed the appointment of Mr. Festus Adedayo as Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to the President of the Senate and decided to rescind its decision on the appointment, and wishes Mr. Adebayo the best in his future endeavours”
On Wednesday, a group known as APC stakeholders Forum protested against Adedayo’s appointment by Lawan who equally retained Olu Onemola and Tope Olowoyeye, aides of Bukola Saraki, his predecessor. Speaking with journalists in Abuja, Abu Andrew, the forum’s spokesman, said the appointments were a glaring reward to people who have insulted President Buhari.
“When the senate president we all supported with our hearts and worked for wholeheartedly begins to compensate enemies of the government, those of the party and indeed those of the same President Buhari who endured insults for backing Senator Lawan for Senate President position; then the devil himself must be celebrated for doing a good job in turning a Senate President we brought in against us so soon and so fast,” Andrew said.
“No doubt, the appointments are glaring reward for people who have not only insulted the person of President Muhammadu Buhari but also severally maligned the integrity of the office he occupies,
Even for supporting Senator Lawan to be senate president, these new appointees did not spare the president. Now that senator Lawan has achieved his ambition, it’s disheartening to see that the very people he puts forward as beneficiaries of his new position are those who condemned and vilified those who supported him to attain the position in the first place.”
The other Saraki aides retained by Lawan are: Special Assistant on Administration to the President of the Senate, Dr. Betty Okoroh; Special Assistant on Media & Publicity, Mohammed Isa; Special Assistant on New Media, Olu Onemola; Senior Legislative Aide on Publicity (Photography), Tope Brown Olowoyeye; and Senior Legislative Aide on Schedules & Events, Ogechukwu Nwankwoh.
