Punch Newspaper Sacks Martin Ayankola As Editor Over COZA Pastor's Cartoon

Punch Nigeria Limited has terminated the appointment of the editor of its daily title, Martin Ayankola, following outrage over a controversial cartoon published last Thursday.

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

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.

Punch had apologised after the cartoon was greeted with backlash.

An emergency meeting was convened by the board on Monday where Ayankola was directed to resign before the close of work.

The editor had only returned from a one-week suspension before the cartoon saga.

It is also suggested that the columnist and the chairman of the editorial board could be affected by the board’s decision.

It was learnt from inside sources that Punch management had been shopping for Ayankola’s replacement for a while.

Former editor of Sunday PUNCH, Toyosi Ogunseye, had been pencilled down to take over in January 2019.

Ms Ogunseye, who is the first female to be appointed editor in the media organisation, however, left in January 2018 to join the BBC as head of West Africa operations.