Aide clarifies minister's remarks on Pentascope contract
A REPORT that Communications Minister, Chief Cornelius O. Adebayo said recently that the Pentascope contract for rejuvenation of the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) may be renewed has been refuted by his Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Akinloye Oyebanji.
He said the report in The Guardian on Monday December 6, 2004, was misrepresentation of what the minister said while on a facility tour in Lagos.
"There was no mention of a contract renewal whatsoever. What the minister said was that a review of the contract is on going, and will be concluded any moment from now", Oyebanji said in a statement.
According to him, Adebayo did not in any way commend the commitment of Pentascope to the Nigerian Project as reported by your correspondent.
"All he said was that the question of contract termination is out of the matter, and a "contract review" is on, and will soon be rounded off" Oyebanji added.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of Kwara State Territorial District of NITEL, Mr. Segun Omolale, has distanced himself from a publication also in The Guardian on Wednesday, December 15 of an alleged plan by the management of the telecommunication outfit to sack about 30 per cent of its workforce next year.
According to Omolale, he was not the source of the story as is being alleged in some quarters. He stated that he only confirmed the retirement of a former NITEL territorial accountant.
"As the local spokesman of the NITEL, I truly confirmed the retirement of our former accountant. I do not derive pleasure in his retirement. I merely discharge my duty. But on the other hand of the story, I was not the source".
The Guardian had exclusively published the story linking it with 'sources', but attributed the confirmation of the sack of the territorial accountant to Omolale.
