Online newspaper, Premium Times, has sacked its Jos-based reporter, Mr. Andrew Ajijah, over a false story credited to Miyetti Allah on the mayhem in P
Online newspaper, Premium Times, has sacked its Jos-based reporter, Mr. Andrew Ajijah, over a false story credited to Miyetti Allah on the mayhem in Plateau in which 100 people were killed. The management of Premium Times has also resolved to apologise to Mr. Danladi Ciroma, the North Central leader of the apex cattle breeders’ organisation over the story published on June 25. The story with the headline, “Killing of nearly 100 people in Plateau retaliatory – Miyetti Allah’’ turned out to be false. Premium Times had reported that the violence that erupted in 11 villages in some local governments was retaliation by the herders whose cattle were killed.
Ciroma, was reported as saying that the killings were a retaliation of previous acts of deadly aggression against Fulani residents and pastoralists in the state. Miyetti Allah distanced itself from the report that went viral and the insinuations that it justified the killings of over 100 people in Plateau State. The denial and strong protest by Ciroma led to an extensive investigation by the online newspaper which discovered some infractions on the part of the reporter which discovered that there was no recording of any interview in which Mr Ciroma made the statement, neither was any statement signed or circulated by him that contained the quotes. The error was traced to Premium Times outstation reporter based in Jos, whose failure to properly attribute the source of the purported statement by Mr Ciroma misled the editors into believing that it was e-mailed to the reporter.
Checks by Premium Times following Mr Ciroma’s protest on Wednesday afternoon showed that the quotes were lifted from The Nation Newspapers. The Nation’s reporter in Plateau State also circulated the quotes in the WhatsApp group of reporters on the government house beat in Jos, telling his colleagues they were the full transcription of his interview with Mr Ciroma. The Nation published the purported quotes by Mr Ciroma hours before our reporter in Jos lifted it without attribution, thus misleading his editors in Abuja.
“This is very much below the standards of verification we strive to maintain and for which we have come to earn the trust of our readers. As a first step, we are sending an apology letter to Mr. Ciroma regretting the mischaracterisation of his role, and assuring him that a disciplinary process is currently apace to ensure accountability for the breakdown in our editorial procedures,” Dapo Olorunyomi, the publisher of Premium Times stated.
The controversial attribution to Miyetti Allah came as the media were facing allegations of bias in its coverage of the ongoing killings in the country.
