The management of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) has sacked one of its correspondents in Makurdi over a fake report published on Dec. 28, 2018.

The reporter, 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 which was attended by Gov. Samuel Ortom.

After an investigation, NAN management found that the entire report was invented by the reporter, as Akume was actually in Uyo to attend the flag-off of the presidential campaign of the All Progressives Congress on the day the said birthday party was held.

Managing Director of the agency, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, described the professional misconduct as a capital offence in journalism and hoped other journalists in the agency would learn from her 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,” Onanuga added.