The Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), Olusegun Runsewe, who was sentenced to prison on January 9 for contempt of a court order issued on December 15, 2017, has alleged that certain powerful entities are pursuing him in an attempt to have him jailed and ousted from his position.
Runsewe, whose previous clash with Bobrisky garnered widespread attention, attributes his current predicament to his refusal to surrender the Art and Craft village property (Opposite Abuja Sheraton) valued at 9.8 billion to these undisclosed forces.
He claims that the property, which posed a security threat to residents of Abuja before he assumed office, had been transformed into a drug den, a holding area, a dwelling for criminals and troublemakers, and a depot for illicit arms and various criminal activities.
In his words:
“So I wonder why some people are intent on converting government property into a haven for inappropriate activities, leading to the police closing down the place.”
“The Art and Craft village belongs to the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It does not belong to me but to the Nigerian people, so I would be failing in my duties as a public officer and appointee of the government if I cannot protect government property, to which I was mandated to oversee.”
According to The Nation, Runsewe has vowed to safeguard Nigeria’s cultural assets within and outside the country, strictly adhering to the law.