The lawmakers said they were shocked that the reporter did not dwell on the responses from them when he called to get the facts of the matter, preferring to file his report based on rumour, blackmail and outright lie

The 19 All Progressives Congress lawmakers in Ekiti State House of Assembly have refuted a newspaper r‎eport that Governor Ayodele Fayose had paid their outstanding salaries and allowances.

A statement by Wole Olujobi, the Special Assistant on Media to former Speaker of the Assembly, Dr. Adewale Omirin, said the report was mischievous, lacking the basic tenet of journalism to always report facts‎ in place of rumours and an unfounded allegation.

The lawmakers said they were shocked that the reporter did not dwell on the responses from them when he called to get the facts of the matter, preferring to file his report based on rumour, blackmail and outright lie.

The statement said: “It is shocking that The Punch chose not to believe us but overzealously believe in the purported sources that thrive in falsehood, lies and propaganda while working for the government.

“The reporter in one breath said his investigation revealed that the lawmakers had been paid, yet he reported that both Fayose and the lawmakers did not confirm the report as they refused to talk to him. If this were the case, then who are the sources that confirmed to the reporter that the lawmakers had been paid?

“To make matters worse, contrary to the reporter’s claim that we did not talk to him, we told him at our end that we have not been paid. Apart from getting this fact from us, the Speaker’s media aide told him the same and so we are surprised that the reporter is claiming that he received no information from us.‎

“In fact, as at Saturday night, the alerts we received from our bank were deficit alerts and so we wonder where the reporter got his story.

“It is unfortunate that just because the reporter wanted to file an exclusive report for his paper, he went ahead to report this falsehood motivated by blackmail.

“Let us even agree without conceding that we were paid our lawful entitlements, what favour does the governor do to us by that after illegally cutting short our tenure by seven months and putting us in harrowing inconveniences in addition to his brazen rape on the Constitution of Nigeria?‎ Must payment of our legal entitlements  prevent us from defending the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which we swore to protect?

“Where are the indications of payment when embargo is placed on our accounts by the governor? Even those who should know in government are wondering where the reporter got his story because there is never any payment to the lawmakers. This is irresponsible journalism at its worst and it is unfortunate that this is coming from The Punch.‎

“We know that this is exactly what the governor would be telling the press when he conceded to pay us to forgo resuming our duties, which we rejected.

“When Punch reporter was calling the Speaker, his media aide ‎and later the lawmakers, the response he got was that they had not received any alert on their accounts and so we were shocked reading in the newspaper that we had been paid.

“In fact as we speak, the governor still places embargo  on our accounts and nobody has been notified that he or she has been paid and so we wonder where the reporter got his information‎.”