The management of THISDAY Newspapers Limited has announced the suspension of two of its deputy editors, Mr. Yemi Ajayi and Mr. Olawale Olaleye, over a story published about the General Overseer of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo, which turned out to be false.
According to the medium, Mr. Oyedepo was denied a visa at the US embassy.
However, the US embassy last week issued a statement to debunk the story and describing it as a ‘manufacture’ report.
#FalseNews Alert! Be advised, the reports making the rounds about a visa being denied to Nigerian Bishop Oyedepo are false.
If you have seen this manufactured item in the media, help defeat this #misinformation by communicating to everyone that it is completely false. pic.twitter.com/H1pDwhf9XW
— U.S. Mission Nigeria (@USinNigeria) January 31, 2020
The story, which claimed that Bishop Oyedepo was denied a visa by the US Embassy, was subsequently refuted by the embassy to be false.
The statement from ThisDay Reads:
The management of THISDAY Newspapers Limited has suspended two of its deputy editors, Mr. Yemi Ajayi and Mr. Olawale Olaleye, over the story: “Drama as US Embassy Denies Bishop Oyedepo Visa,” published last Friday.
The story, which claimed that Bishop Oyedepo was denied visa by the US Embassy, was subsequently refuted by the embassy to be false.
Following the rebuttal, the newspaper management investigated the publication and found that the two deputy editors failed to follow its well established traditions of carrying out the necessary checks and confirmations expected of personnel of their status in a sensitive story of that nature.
They were, therefore, suspended indefinitely.
The newspaper had on Saturday published a Corrigendum, acknowledging the error in the publication, and apologised to the revered Bishop for the embarrassment the story might have caused him.
