Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has denied the news that he rejected the plea to help fund the repatriation of the remains of Moji Olaiya, the veteran Nollywood actress who died in Canada on May 17.
This was made known in a statement issued by the Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka.
The statement said the claim that Fayose refused to financially support the repatriation of the actress's body to Nigeria was not true.
Olayinka in the statement said there was no communication between his office and Olaiya's family, except for a phone call by a journalist.
SEE ALSO: Agony, shock as Moji Olaiya dies at 42
The statement read, "On Thursday, last week, I was contacted on phone by a journalist friend (name withheld) on the need for the Ekiti State Government to assist in raising a sum of $15,000 needed to bring Moji Olaiya's corpse to Nigeria.
"My immediate response was that an official request, via a letter, should be made and that the letter will be presented to the governor. I gave him my email address to which I said the letter should be sent.
"On Friday, I informed the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Chief Dipo Anisulowo, of my telephone conversation with (the journalist) and my response that official letter should be written to the governor.
"Up till today, the letter has not been sent and as such, no official request has been made to the state government.
"When my attention was drawn to online publications that Governor Fayose had refused to fund the flying of the deceased to Nigeria, I called the journalist who did the report and told him pointedly that no such decision was taken by the governor.
"It was on the strength of this that (the journalist) issued a press statement on behalf of the Burial Committee, stating that no request had been made to the government of Ekiti State and the official letter requested was yet to be sent.
"It, therefore, beats our imagination that certain character (name withheld) could take to the online media to make derogatory comments on the governor, purportedly on behalf of the family.
"While we condole with the Olaiya family of Ijesha Isu Ekiti, Moji Olaiya's friends, fans and colleagues in the movie industry, we wish to advise that the family should saddle only responsible people with the task of according their daughter a befitting burial."
No comments:
Post a Comment