Say No To Plagiarism — Fisayo Soyombo Calls Out YAAR For Passing Off His Story As Hers On Facebook

Popular Investigative Journalist has called out ‘Yetunde Morenikeji Ajani Adeniyi Raji Foundation – YAAR’ for publishing his story on her Facebook without giving credit to him as the author.

He had done a piece on Federal Medical Center (FMC) Azare, Bauchi and the management’s gross negligence which led to reports of 12 persons connected to the hospital testing positive for COVID-19 in nine days.

Shortly after 24 hours of publishing the 464-word piece, YAAR published same on her Facebook page adding a 26-word prelude of her own and not giving credit to Fisayo.

According to Fisayo, in the evening of May 7, someone tagged him to YAAR’s Facebook post with the comment: “This piece was written by ‘Fisayo Soyombo; acknowledge the author, please”.

He took a look only to realize it was his story from the previous day on Twitter. He labelled her actions as “dishonourable and despicable”.

He was snubbed when he asked the lady who had almost 40,000 followers on Facebook to explain her action.

“Not until I reminded her that someone who’s had the encounters she listed in her bio shouldn’t be found in dishonour did she show up.

“And when she did, it was attack upon attack. She claimed I wanted credit for my work because I was chasing fame and money.

“She insisted someone had sent her the piece and for that reason I couldn’t claim credit for it.

“This was even after I’d sent her the link to the copy I ran the previous day and the COVID-19 series I’d been running since early April.” Fisayo tweeted.

She insisted someone had sent her the piece and for that reason I couldn’t claim credit for it.

This was even after I’d sent her the link to the copy I ran the previous day and the COVID-19 series I’d been running since early April.
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— ‘Fisayo Soyombo (@fisayosoyombo) May 13, 2020

The award winning journalist asked Facebook to take down YAAR’s post on the grounds of plagiarism.

Behind the scenes YAAR had already sought for legal counsel which resulted in her lawyers writing Fisayo saying his “intellectual theft” comments were ‘defamatory” and asking that he paid N100million for damages within seven days, or else face the consequences for his actions.

The letter written to Fisayo was reportedly circulated online by YAAR accompanied by screenshots of his Facebook profile and photo about how he is just her “boy” and how she’d put him in his place.

“Well, I’m happy to report that after concluding its investigations yesterday, Facebook has now taken down the post from YAAR’s wall (see Screenshot 4) for “violating the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities”, which is an “intellectual property issue”.”

See below screenshot as proof that YAAR’s Facebook post no longer exists.

“However, this shouldn’t be the end of the matter. I am, by this post, encouraging YAAR’s lawyers to not only proceed to court as they’ve threatened but to raise their N100m demand to N200m.” Fisayo stated.

However, this shouldn’t be the end of the matter. I am, by this post, encouraging YAAR’s lawyers to not only proceed to court as they’ve threatened but to raise their N100m demand to N200m.
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— ‘Fisayo Soyombo (@fisayosoyombo) May 13, 2020

Plagiarism has now become the order of the day in Today’s Media and Journalism. Such actions are not to be encouraged as plagiarized contents are intellectual properties of another party which ought to be recognized for efforts put in to come up with such informative or entertaining material.