by Rachel Ogbu

Obafaiye Shem has for the first time addressed the circumstances following his now famous interview on Channels Television last Tuesday.

The Lagos State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, dismissed the rumours that he was suspended because he couldn’t answer correctly what the NSCDC website was, a flop that sparked the #MyOgaAtTheTop sensation.

[READ: This is just unbelievable: See how the Civil Defence commandant embarrassed himself on live TV (WATCH, TRANSCRIPT)]

[READ: #MyOgaAtTheTop: “Why should he be punished, did he commit any crime?” – NSCDC defends Lagos commandant over TV flop]

[READ: ‘My Oga at the top’ remix: We’d have wanted you to Azonto to this, but… (WATCH)]

It was also said that his wife had embarked on a one-man protest to Channels over the upload of the interview by the Channels.

But the commandant said his wife would never do such a thing and that he has been on casual leave to perform the burial rites of his father Pa Michael Obafaye, who died on February 8, 2013 at the age of 82 and will resume at his duty post next Thursday.

”I am still the State Commandant of NSCSC and I am determined to work hard to expose the vandals across the State,” he said.

“My wife was in the village with me for my father’s burial and there is no way she could have visited the television station to carry out a protest. She is a learned person and somebody of that caliber would not have been involved in such a jinx. I see all these as a distraction which is not enough to hinder me from achieving my goal in Lagos State.”

Shem celebrated 100 days in office as commandant and he said he has made remarkable progress in uncovering several hideouts of vandals especially at Arepo, Festac town and Epe and has paraded several pipeline vandals including three siblings.

He said he had some pending files on his table which will be treated as soon as he resumes work.

On Monday, a post in the Channels Television website said, “the rumour making the rounds that commandant of the Nigeria Security And Civil Defence Corp in Lagos has been demoted or suspended in the aftermath of a now famous phrase is false. The alleged visit by his wife to the headquarters of Channels Television to protest the upload of the interview where he failed to name his organisation’s website has been discredited as another wild tale.”