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Calabar, March 2025 – The Chairman of the Cross River State Independent Electoral Commission (CROSIEC), Dr. Ekong Boco, has strongly condemned the spread of false and sensational reports, calling out journalists who fail to verify their information before publication.
This comes after a viral post falsely alleged that the salaries of CROSIEC staff had not been paid because a rat had eaten the commission’s server. Reacting to the misleading claim, Dr. Boco dismissed it as “baseless and unprofessional,” stressing that CROSIEC neither owns a server nor is responsible for salary payments.
“This commission does not handle salary payments. We receive salaries like every other civil servant in the state. It is the Accountant General’s office that processes payments, and the delay in salaries has already been addressed by His Excellency,” Dr. Boco clarified.
Expressing his disappointment over the false report, the CROSIEC boss criticized the journalist behind it for failing to seek clarification. “A responsible journalist would have reached out for verification before publishing such nonsense. This is how fake journalism thrives—by spreading lies instead of facts,” he fumed.
Dr. Boco urged the public to disregard misleading reports and called on media practitioners to uphold ethical standards. “Journalism is meant to inform, not mislead. If you call yourself a journalist, do your job properly—verify, balance, and report the truth,” he stated.
As misinformation continues to threaten the credibility of media institutions, this incident serves as a wake-up call for practitioners to prioritize accuracy over sensationalism. Fake news may trend, but truth and professionalism will always stand the test of time.
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