Fake CNN reporter arrested in Bayelsa.

A 36-year-old fake journalist identified as Paul Yempe, who claimed to be the U.S-based Cable News Network (CNN) Correspondent in the Niger Delta region, has been arrested by security operatives in Bayelsa State. it was  gathered that the fake reporter was arrested last weekend in the office of the state Commissioner for Energy, Francis Ikio, in Yenagoa. A fake CNN identity card and another one bearing the name of Rivers State Broadcasting Corporation, popularly called ‘Radio Rivers’, were found on him.

Yempe was said to have, a few days before his arrest, arrived in the state capital and established contact with the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Edmund Allison-Oguru, explaining that he had a documentary project to carry out on Bayelsa. It was learnt that the SSG immediately arranged an accommodation for him in a top-flight hotel in Yenagoa and followed it up with some ‘perks’. The SSG was said to have referred Yempe to the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Markson Fefegha, whom he interviewed with his mobile handset.
Yempe’s session with Fefegha, sources said, was not recorded with any camera. Apparently feeling satisfied that he had started making some in-road on his mission, Yempe dashed to Ikio’s office on the suggestion of Fefegha. But luck ran out on him as he met Ikio seated with other guests, including the Commissioner for Environment, Sylvanus Abila; immediate past Chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Yenagoa branch, Azebi; and the Chairman, Bayelsa State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Tarinyo Akono, who ordered his arrest. “He came to the office of the Energy Commissioner claiming to have come for an interview as part of a documentary he is working on for the state.
“I asked the commissioner to allow him in and I apprehended him. I asked him for his camera, but he said he is using his mobile handset as a recorder”, Akono said. When contacted, Police Public Relations Officer, Bayelsa Command, Alex Akhigbe, confirmed the arrest of the CNN impostor.


Source: Daily Independent

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