National Executive of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Saturday ,March 8,2025, in the evening suspended the election of the Enugu State Council of the Union, following disagreements amongst members.
The said election was earlier scheduled to hold on Friday, March 7, but was shifted to Saturday, at 8:am. Unfortunately, members came out enmasse to exercise their franchise but were disappointed as the National body and some members of the 5- man credential committee headed by Sebastian Okafor of the Daily Star Chapel.
could not agree on issues of omission of names of some candidates and members on the delegate lists .
At about 9:30am, members went in for their congress where the Comrade Sam Udekwe-led executive was dissolved for the election to commence.
Members waited for more than five hours for the election to start, and it was not forthcoming till around 3:50pm when candidates were called in for a meeting with the Representatives of the National Body and the Credentials committee. The said meeting ended in dreadlock.
It was gathered that there was a disagreement between some members of the credential committee regarding the delegate list.
Some members of the credentials committee insisted that election would not hold until they were shown the receipts of the delegates who paid their Practising fees and the Professional fees, while some members held that the delegate lists accredited by the national Secretariat should be used .
The disagreement was not unconnected with the fact that there were two factions, the Right Path team supporting the immediate past chairman, Comrade Sam Udekwe who was seeking a second tenure and ,the other faction, the Restoration team , supporting Comrade Obinna Ogbuka of Radio Nigeria Chapel.
Pix: Members
There was heated argument to the extent that the South East Zonal officials of the Union led by Comrade Eze Adiukwu , inorder to avoid crisis , suspended the election and set up a 4- Man Caretaker Committee
The Caretaker Committee headed by Comrade Agatha Agu of the Radio Nigeria chapel had Comrade Jude Chinedu of the Sun Newspaper as the secretary.
The Committee has 3 months to constitute another credentials committee that would conduct another election.
Committee Chairman, Agatha Agu, while speaking on behalf of other members, promised that they would conduct election in no distant time
Meanwhile, members who came out to cast their votes expressed disappointment that the election did not hold.. There was heavy presence of armed policemen who were at the Press centre from morning till evening to maintain law and order Incase of any unlawful act.
Author: Maureen Ikpeama
NUJ suspends Enugu Council’s election, inaugurates Caretaker Committee
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