… Accuses Zone F President Of Fuelling Crunches
The Delta State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) under the leadership of Comrade Norbert Chiazor, which was dissolved Thursday 20th April 2017 ended in turbulent as the election scheduled to hold at the Labour House, Asaba, was aborted occasioned by personal and selfish interests.
247ureports.com reliably learnt that the final Delegates list compiled from Chapels through the state Council to the National Secretariat of the Union was padded by the Zone F President, a Deeper Life Bible Church Pastor, Comrade Akpati Edward Ogude.
The Council had in 2015 compiled a reviewable compendium (document) of all practicing journalists in the state which was dumped for the larger-than-life Delegates list but was resisted by members who insisted that the document must be used or the election must not hold.
The National Secretary, Shu’aibu Usman Leman, who came to supervise the election, on seeing the apprehension on the faces and body language of the Union members quickly announced that the national secretariat has instructed him to suspend the election till further notice after several attempt to sue for peace failed.
Agitation from members led the National Secretary with members of the Credentials Committee led by Chief Gabriel Awodeha, the outgone chairman and the Zone ‘F’ President into a closed door meeting.
After several hours of unsuccessful deliberation, a fierce looking team of mobile policemen in company of the former chairman and the Zone F President led Usman Leman out of Labour House, the venue of the futile election.
Angered by the terminated elections, one of the candidates for the position of the secretary, Churchill Oyowe, a level grade 14 officer in the state Ministry of Information engaged a journalist (name withheld) in a fisticuff for daring to challenge his position “that if the election did not hold, the Chiazor-led government would continue”.
Oyowe who seem to be desperate to clinch his office which he also occupied in the last tenure after stepping down from the chairmanship position due to pressure, jacked the journalist on the neck for citing Article 5 (9c) which states that “where there is a stalemate in the election at the National Delegates’ Conference, the state council chairmen and secretaries shall take over and run the affairs of the Union and conduct fresh elections within three months. Same shall apply in the case of a stalemate in the state council elections where chapel chairmen and secretaries shall perform the same functions”.
The above section of the NUJ Constitution was enforced after the stalemate by the Chairman of Delta Broadcasting Service (DBS) Warri Chapel, Daniel Oji and other members of the Union who stopped Oyowe from addressing the Delegates Conference, insisting that he has no constitutional rights to address the Delegates Conference.
The Council has been taken over by the State Executive Council (SEC), comprising of chapel chairmen and secretaries with the mandate from the National President, Abdulwaheed Odusile, to conduct election within three months as stipulated in the NUJ Constitution.
Meanwhile, following the intrigues that greeted the suspension of the election, the outgone chairman, fingered the Zone F President of being the brain behind the crises that has rocked the Delta NUJ for about 25 years of its existence.
He accused Ogude of doctoring the Delegates list to his favour in order to plant his stooges who would hijack the Union’s structure in the state for him to control the leadership hierarchy of the Union even as he also accused Ogude of womanizing and extorting monies from candidates in past and the just suspended elections.
