The management of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, has sacked the agency’s correspondent in Makurdi over a fake report on Governor Samuel Ortom which was published on December 28, 2018.
The reporter, Bridget Kyado, filed a report titled, ‘Akume, a great asset to Benue—-Ortom’, in which she claimed to have witnessed a birthday party for Sen. George Akume and was attended by Mr Ortom.
She quoted Mr Akume, a former governor of the state and Ortom in the report and mentioned Ambassador Steve Ugbah and Terkimbi Ikyange, Speaker of the Benue House of Assembly as some of the dignitaries present at the event in Tarka, Benue.
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After an investigation, management found that the entire report was invented by the reporter, who joined the agency in 2010.
After fact-checking the report, Mr Akume was actually in Uyo on December 28 to attend the flag-off of the presidential campaign of the All Progressives Congress.
Management of the news agency said they were seriously embarrassed by the fake report and had to impose the maximum punishment by sacking the reporter.
Managing Director of the agency, Bayo Onanuga, described the professional misconduct as a capital offence in journalism and hoped other journalists in the agency would learn from Kyado’s experience and keep faithfully to the tenets of the profession.
“Truth and integrity matter in our business of reporting. Fiction has no place here. Most important, the reputation of the 40 year-old agency is at stake.
“We have a duty to continue to sustain the integrity of the News Agency of Nigeria,” Mr Onanuga added.
The sacked reporter, 34, read Mass Communication at Benue State University, graduating in 2008.
Management of the agency, therefore, urged all subscribers to delete the report from their portal.
