Temitope Ajayi, the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Media and Publicity to President Bola Tinubu, has called for the death penalty to be served on Ushie Uguamaye, a corps member who referred to his principal as a terrible president.

Via Facebook on Monday, Ajayi said Uguamaye deserved capital punishment for uploading a video on TikTok to complain about ill conditions she experienced while undergoing her mandatory service year with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Her video went viral and drew reactions from several Nigerians including 2023 presidential candidates Atiku Abubakar, Omoyele Sowore and Peter Obi.

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Reacting to her video on Monday, Ajayi said, “Citizens can abuse a living day out of their President or any public official. It is normal. But a copper violated her oath and conduct here. That is capital punishment under NYSC.

“You can’t abuse the country you are serving as a corper under any guise and the symbol of sovereign authority which is the President. She should be punished to the fullest extent, not just warning. She chose to be silly, then she should face the consequences.”

When reactions began trailing his comments, Ajayi attempted to backtrack via another post.

He claimed he was not calling for her head but for the maximum punishment of expulsion from the service corps.

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Ajayi wrote, “I made comments under a post where I advertently wrote that what the lady corper did should attract capital punishment under NYSC which means her indiscretion should attract highest punishment under the NYSC scheme.”

Here he uses ‘advertently’, a term that qualifies an action as being done heedfully, attentively or intentionally.

Meanwhile, capital punishment originates from the Latin capitalist, which is derived from caput (head). Its meaning translates primarily to chopping of a head as a form of execution, but now translates to all forms of execution.