Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, has addressed allegations that he called for the execution of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member Ushie Uguamaye, who recently made critical remarks about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on social media.
Ajayi’s response follows widespread public outrage over his previous comments, in which he insisted that the corps member should face full disciplinary measures as outlined in the NYSC code of conduct. Many Nigerians interpreted his remarks as a call for extreme punishment, leading to a heated debate online.
In a now-deleted Facebook post, Ajayi initially wrote: “If she is not a corper, she can say whatever she fancies like people do per second. Citizens can abuse the living day out of their President or any public official. It is normal.”
He further stated: “But a corper violated her oath and code of conduct here. That is capital punishment under NYSC. You can’t abuse the country you are serving as a corper under any guise and the symbol of sovereign authority, which is the president. She should be punished to the fullest extent, not just warned.”
As the controversy gained momentum, Ajayi released an official statement on Monday clarifying his position. He strongly denied ever calling for the execution of the corps member, accusing critics of deliberately twisting his words to create unnecessary public outrage.
“The mob get their oxygen from misrepresentations and deliberate mischief. I made comments under a post where I advertently wrote that what the lady corper did should attract capital punishment under NYSC, which means her indiscretion should attract the highest punishment under the NYSC scheme.”
He further explained: “The highest punishment under NYSC is expulsion. There was a follow-up comment under the same thread where I provided the context in my usage of ‘capital punishment under NYSC’ as a metaphor. The follow-up comment that explained the previous comment was ignored.”
Ajayi emphasized that his remarks were never meant to be taken as a call for extreme punitive action, adding, “It is common sense that there is no death penalty anywhere as punishment under NYSC law.”
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