Bishop Oyedepo: ThisDay Suspends Two Editors

By Charles Igbo

The fallout of the story which claimed that the presiding Bishop of the Winners Chapel, David Oyedepo, was denied a renewal of his Visa by the US Embassy is not about to end.

It has earned two Newspaper Editors an indefinite suspension.

Messers Yemi Ajayi and Olawale Olaleye, both Deputy Editors at ThisDay, were on Monday, suspended indefinitely by the Newspaper’s Management.

The Newspaper, known for its credibility, had, last Friday ran an exclusive story, which was subsequently, quoted by others, to the effect that Oyedepo had gone to the US Embassy on Thursday to renew his Visa, but was denied for not being qualified to be issued one.

Entitled, Drama as US Embassy Denies Oyedepo Visa, it caused  a stir in the country, especially, within the Christian Community. The Bishop was alleged to have challenged them, and followed up by making phone calls asking for intervention.

But the Winners Chapel had swiftly denied the story, revealing that the revered Bishop neither was at the US Embassy, nor had his Visa expired. He renewed it in 2019, the Church said in a statement.

The US Embassy followed by dismissing the story as fake, warning the general public to beware of such fake stories.

The story was published on the heels of the banning of Nigeria, among other countries, by the US Government,  for some categories of Visas, pointing at the security situation in the country.

On Saturday, the Management of ThisDay published a corrigendum which acknowledged the error, as well as apologised to Bishop Oyedepo.

The consequence is the indefinite suspension of the two Editors. They were found guilty of not following what the Management called its “traditions of carrying out the necessary checks and confirmations expected of personnel of their status in a sensitive story of that nature”.