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CAN Secretary-General’s Obituary – The Punch Newspaper desperately tries to incite violence
Punch Reports Musa Asake's death, with utmost disrespect

While announcing the death of Dr. Musa Asake, Secretary-General of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Punch Newspaper tries all it could to link his death to his fighting for Christians and leading a protest against “Fulani herdsmen” killings. This is even as it reluctantly admits it does not know the cause of death.

In a typical “Breaking News” and “Details Later” attempt at journalism, Punch’s reporter, Friday Olokor, announced the death of Alake, who he claimed died Friday morning in Abuja “after an illness”. The reporter however quickly reminded his readers that this death is coming about two weeks after Asake led a protest “against the killing of Christians by suspected Fulani herdsmen.”

Usually when journalists link events in News reports with “this is coming after…” it is a way of showing how events are related.

Not done with his plot, the writer goes ahead to mention that Dr. Asake was vocal in the defence of Christianity in Nigeria.

To make matters worse, DailyNigerian decides to do a copy and paste of what Punch reported. The only work the DailyNigerian Editor seem to have done was to add the herdsmen reference to the title and copy the paragraph on Fulani Herdsmen and make it the first paragraph on their report, escalating the irresponsibility.

Both reports can be seen below

Ignoring his true profile

While Punch chooses to reduce Asake to an activist and link his death to activism in hunt of traffic, it so blatantly forgot the man’s history.

Asake was General Secretary of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Jos, between 1999 and May 2005. Trained as a pastor, teacher, conference speaker, counselor, with a wealth of experiences in all these areas, he started his pastoral career as an assistant and senior pastor at the ECWA Church, Unguwar Rimi, Bajju, his hometown in Zangon Kataf Local Government of Kaduna State in 1976.

In 1996, he became the pastor-in-charge of ECWA Headquarters Church in Jos after he completed his doctorate degree in philosophy, PhD at the Dallas Theological Seminary, Dallas, Texas, USA with specialization in Bible Exposition.

Between 1976 and 2012, he pastored 3 different churches and lectured part-time at Jos Theological Seminary (JETS). He was also a member of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) between 1999 and 2005, served as chairman and member of several Christian boards and governing councils.

Asake was Chairman of Plateau State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board between 2003 and 2005.

He served as a member of the Board of Trustee, ECWA Bingham University and became chairman, Ministers Development Initiative (MDI), Jos.

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