A member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Adedeji Olajide, on Saturday clarified the role he played in the exiting of some journalists from the venue of a public hearing organised by the House Ad hoc Committee on COVID-19 on Friday.
Olajide, a member of the committee, maintained that considerations for the safety of everyone in attendance and the need to adhere with COVID-19 protocols of social distancing were the reasons behind the plea to few journalists, lawmakers’ aides and security details to leave the venue of the public hearing.
He added that if the war against COVID-19 would be won, everyone must be ready to do the right thing and make sacrifices, noting that evicting few persons from the venue was a sacrifice they had to make for their safety and that of others seated within the hall.
According to the lawmaker, the public hearing was held inside one of the committee rooms of the House of Representatives and was attended by the Minister of Health, Minister of State for Health and the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), a development, which he said, attracted too many people to the venue.
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According to Olajide, as a member of the ad hoc committee on COVID-19, not only did it behoove on the committee to carry out oversight functions on the appropriate bodies during the pandemic, the committee also had the mandate to spread the message on COVID-19 prevention protocols and be seen to be doing everything right and setting good example for the populace at a period that governments at all levels had been preaching social distancing, wearing of face masks and so on.
He stated that this realisation was responsible for the decision to cut down the number of people inside the venue, saying that contrary to some publications that he ‘bounced’ journalists from the venue in an unruly manner, he indeed, pleaded with few guests, including aides of lawmakers, orderlies and few journalists sitting towards the back of the venue to excuse the gathering.
Olajide maintained that the action did not go down well with some journalists, who he accused of going out to smear his personality, stressing that he would continue to hold journalists in high esteem, knowing the strategic importance of the profession to nation-building.
