Ernest Chinwo
2 November 2009
Calabar — The National Secretariat of the Nigeria Union Journalists (NUJ) has nullified the elections of the Cross River State Council of the Union held on August 13, 2009, on grounds of gross irregularities.
Based on the decision of the Union, the executive and the credential committee of the state council stand dissolved.
Deputy National President of the union and Chairman of the five-man delegation from the National Secretariat of the Union to resolve the election crisis in the state, Mr Rotimi Obamuwagun, made the pronouncement in a special congress in Calabar at the weekend.
Obamuwagun-led committee which upheld an earlier report of the Zone F Vice President of the Union, Mr Pius Ede, nullified the election on the ground that the credential committee did not do a thorough job in line with the constitution of the Union.
Accoding to him, "we were presented with three different result sheets, according to the report of the Zonal Vice president which was signed by six agents of the contestants. That was given to him allegedly by the state council when he came here before now. There were alterations in that report in about three figures there.
"They recorded four voided votes for the position of vice chairman, six for secretary, 15 for financial secretary. Again that same result sheet was not signed by the representative of the National Secretariat but by the chairman of the credentials committee.
"The second report sheet was co-signed by the chairman of the credentials committee and the representative of the national Secretariat with only one agent signing. This one was given by the chairman of the credentials committee.
"The third result was not signed by any agent at all. It contains voided votes. Four for the Vice Chairman, six for the Secretary and five for the financial secretary".
He added that "in all, the signature of the Credentials Committee chairman appeared on all three of them, while that of the representatives of the national Secretariat appeared in just two."
"One of the result sheets was attached to the report sent in by the vice chairman of the zone. One was given by the chairman of the credentials committee, the other was given by the secretary of the state council which he purportedly said was sent to him through the internet down here by the national secretariat.
"There is also something they call the Federated Chapel here. We discovered that the papers given to us that the membership of that chapel contains eight names which participated in the elections. These names were not originally in the names of the collated chapels. It was a handwritten thing on a piece of paper. This list in our own opinion and in accordance with the constitution of the NUJ is less than 10 which is the mandatory constitutional provision of names of people that should form a chapel.
"We discovered that the second contender for the office of treasurer cleared by the National Secretariat was denied the right by the Credentials Committee to contest that election. The explanation given was that the first time the list of contestants was sent to this place, the name of that man was not part of it. After the protest to the National Secretariat with facts and figures, the National Secretariat said that man should be allowed to contest and the National Secretariat wrote to that effect. But in the wisdom of the Credentials Committee here, he was disqualified.
"They also said he was not a practising journalist. They said he was the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Speaker of the House of Assembly. They said they went to the place and investigated and Clerk of the House confirmed it.
"The same disqualified man went to the same office of the Deputy Speaker and obtained a letter saying that he was not a worker in that office. That is the letter we have. Based on this we disagree with the judgement of the credentials committee on that issue. It has not been proven beyond reasonable doubt".
Accordingly, the Special Committee resolved that "this election was not held in strict compliance with the NUJ constitution based on the facts put before you. An election which produced three different results can never stand the test of time. That the disqualification of the second contender for the post of treasurer cannot hold".
A 5 man Credential Committee headed by Mr Francis Henshaw and Mr Ernest Chinwo as Secretary was put in place to do a fresh election "within the next two weeks.
The Committee said that only those who participated in the last elections plus the disqualified candidate for the post of treasurer will contest the next elections.
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