Premium Times has sacked its Jos-based
reporter, 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 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.
The online journal had reported that the violence that erupted in
11 villages in some local governments was retaliation by the
herders whose cattle were killed. The report quoted Ciroma as
saying: “These attacks are retaliatory. As much as I don’t support
the killing of human being, the truth must be told that those who
carried out the attacks must be on revenge mission. Fulani
herdsmen have lost about 300 cows in the last few weeks 94
cows were rustled by armed Berom youths in Fan village, another
36 cows were killed by Berom youths. In addition to that, 174
cattle were rustled.”
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. 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. The denial and
strong protest by Ciroma led to an extensive investigation by the
respected online newspaper which discovered some infractions on
the part of the reporter.
Premium Times Apology On Misleading Miyetti Allah’s
Statement
An internal investigation by PREMIUM TIMES found 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 our 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 … See more
Femi Adesina
15 hours ago
Premium Times therefore stated as follows: “While Mr Ciroma
acknowledged speaking with a reporter on Monday in Jos, he
insisted to PREMIUM TIMES that he did not make the statement
credited to him. In fact, he said what he told the reporter was the
opposite of what was reported.
“An internal investigation by PREMIUM TIMES found 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 our 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. The reporter
filed the story on Monday morning based on ‘a statement’ from Mr
Ciroma. But checks by PREMIUM TIMES following Mr Ciroma’s
protest on Wednesday afternoon showed that the quotes were
lifted from The Nation Newspapers. “.
The reporter later admitted to PREMIUM TIMES that he did not
have a recording of his call with Mr Ciroma, but said the quotes
mirrored the Miyetti Allah leader’s position on the latest killings in
Plateau State.
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