Adetutu Sobowale
Claim
A Twitter user, @cecorule claimed that Ayoola Babalola, a journalist who wrote a report about an alleged phone conversation where the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, purportedly asking the General Overseer of Living Faith Church, Winners Chapel, to support his political goals, has been suspended by Peoples Gazette, a news outlet.
Verdict
Misleading! FactCheckElection’s investigation revealed that the journalist’s suspension was a result of breaching the company’s guidelines on social media usage.
Full Text
A Twitter user, @cecorule claimed that Ayoola Babalola, a journalist who wrote an article about an alleged phone conversation where the Labour Party’s Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, purportedly asked the General Overseer of Living Faith Church, Winners Chapel, to support his political goals, has been suspended by Peoples Gazette, a news outlet.
She claimed that the Peoples Gazette has suspended the reporter who published the fake audio call.
She wrote, “The People’s Gazette has finally suspended the reporter who published the fake audio call.
“They will all learn their lessons a hard way.
“Peter Obi is coming💪”
Recall that Peoples Gazette on Sunday published a report on an alleged audio call conversation between Obi and Bishop Oyedepo.
According to the report, Obi contacted Bishop Oyedepo on the eve of the 2023 general election and requested him to encourage Christians not just in the South-West but also in central states such as Kwara, Kogi, and Niger to support him.
The tweet contained a screenshot of the Peoples Gazette report with the headline ‘Peoples Gazette Suspend Reporter Amidst Probe Into Social Media Policy Violations’.
The tweet has garnered 294 retweets, 650 likes, 127k views, and 52 comments as of press time.
Verification
To confirm the statement, FactCheckElections checked the Peoples Gazette’s website and came across a report that revealed the organization had taken disciplinary action against the reporter for violating their social media guidelines.
According to the report, Babalola, a proficient and respected journalist at Peoples Gazette, has been suspended for his online behavior, which breached the newspaper’s social media policy and raised doubts about its credibility.
“Mr. Babalola also agreed to attend counseling during the suspension to further enhance his conduct, according to the decision, which was announced in a company-wide memo from Deputy Managing Editor Boladale Adekoya on Tuesday.” the report reads in part.
The publication’s senior staff who acknowledged Babalola as a valued and dynamic member of their editorial team emphasized that his behavior on social media, spanning several months, including the most recent weekend, seriously contravened the organization’s guidelines on employee conduct.
He stressed that the management made the decision after carefully reviewing the reporter’s scathing retorts to relentless online trolls and concluded that Mr. Babalola did not act with the decorum and professionalism expected of The Gazette’s employees.
Adekoya emphasized that the suspension was a challenging decision “for the organisation: Mr. Babalola faced vicious attacks on social media following our scoop on Peter Obi’s phone call with Bishop Oyedepo.”
Conclusion
FactCheckElections can conclude that Peoples Gazette suspended its reporter for violating its social media policy and not (for) the controversial report claiming that Obi urged Bishop Oyedepo to plead with Christians to support him. Therefore the claim is MISLEADING.