COZA saga: PUNCH appoints new editors

he management of The PUNCH has appointed new editors for its daily and weekend titles following the sack of the former helmsmen.

The newspaper on Tuesday, after interviewing about 15 people appointed Ademola Oni as the Daily Editor of The PUNCH to replace Martin Ayankola.

Oni was the Sunday Editor of the newspaper before his elevation as the Daily Editor.

The PUNCH had on Monday sacked its Daily Editor, Ayankola over an offensive cartoon published on its back page last Thursday. Also asked to resign was the Saturday Editor, Olabisi Deji-Folutile over the same issue.

There has been outrage over a cartoon published on the back page of the PUNCH last Thursday. The opinion on its back page column was written by Abimbola Adelakun, with the title “What Does Mrs. Fatoyinbo Know.” The article was illustrated with a 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.

Also, PM News authoritatively learnt that Dayo Oketola was appointed by the company as the Weekend Editor for both Saturday and Sunday publications.

Oketola was formerly the Business Editor of the Daily newspaper.

Meanwhile, before his sack on Monday, Ayankola had been the longest serving PUNCH Editor, having been appointed to the office in 2013 and during his tenure, the PUNCH towered higher.

He was forced to resign for allegedly bringing the newspaper into disrepute, as Deji-Folutile was also asked to resign for allegedly playing a role in the publication, while the cartoonist of the newspaper was sacked.

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.”