Rape saga: Punch Newspaper sacks editor, Martin Ayankola over offensive cartoon on Pastor Fatoyinbo

Punch Newspaper has sacked its Daily Editor, Martin Ayankola over an offensive cartoon published in the newspaper last Thursday.

Ayankola, who was appointed on December 2012, is the longest-serving editor in the 46 years history of The PUNCH.

Also asked to resign was the Saturday Editor, Olabisi Deji-Folutile over the same issue.

The newspaper had on July 4 published an article on its back page by Abimbola Adelakun with the title “What Does Mrs. Fatoyinbo Know”. The article, which examined the rape allegations against Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA) was illustrated with the cartoon of a man desecrating the bible with urine.

The publication had generated lots of displeasure against the newspaper for publishing such offensive cartoon aimed at casting aspersion on the Christian faith and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Saturday Editor, Deji-Folutile was also asked to resign for allegedly playing a role in the publication, while the cartoonist of the newspaper was sacked, with more people still being investigated, while the columnist, Abimbola Adelakun, was asked to rest her column.

The PUNCH had also tendered an apology to the public over the offensive cartoon.

The apology reads: “On the back of the page of the Thursday, July 4, 2019 edition of the PUNCH, we published a cartoon to illustrate an article titled, ‘What does Mrs Fatoyinbo know?’ The cartoon features a character desecrating the Holy Bible.

“We apologise for the offensive cartoon and assure our esteemed readers that we hold the Christian faith in high regard. We have since commenced the process of applying appropriate sanctions to the members of staff responsible, and we shall be reviewing our editorial process to prevent re-occurrence.”