TheCable

Chris Isiguzo has been elected president of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ). 

The south-east bureau chief of THISDAY polled 346 votes to defeat Abdulwaheed Odusile, the incumbent president.

Odusile garnered 329 voted in the tightly contested election.

In his acceptance speech, he said his focus as the new president will be on the welfare of journalists.

“I assure that time to rescue the union has started; you will be proud of us. We won’t disappoint you,” he said.
“We will unveil our programme of actions in the coming days. The days you work and you will not receive your salary are gone.

“The immediate past president has congratulated me with other co-contestants. I want to dedicate this victory to all Nigerian journalists.”

Prior to the election that held on Thursday in Abeokuta, Ogun state, a petition addressed to the chairman and secretary of the NUJ credentials committee, sought Isiguzo’s disqualification from the race.

In the union’s constitution, the national secretary is expected to publish and circulate the list of all candidates and their CVs to all state councils six weeks before the date of the election, and in the final list of cleared candidates released by the union, Isiguzo, from Enugu council, had his qualification reading “ND Mass Com”.

The petitioner, however, said Isiguzo did not possess the qualification, and had demanded that the committee avail them the institution and year he “purportedly obtained this spurious certificate”.

Isiguzo had dismissed the allegation saying it was a ploy by his opponents to get him distracted.