The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has sacked its correspondent in Makurdi, Bridget Kyado, over a fake report published on December 28, 2018.
Kyado had filed a report titled ‘Akume, a great asset to Benue – Ortom’ in which she claimed to have witnessed a birthday party for Senator George Akume attended by Governor Samuel Ortom.
She quoted 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.
After an investigation, NAN management found that the entire report was invented by the reporter, who joined the agency in 2010.
Akume was actually in Uyo on December 28 for the presidential campaign flag-off of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Embarrassed by the development NAN management. Elected 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 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 said.
Kyado, 34, studied mass communication at Benue State University, graduating in 2008.
