NUJ cancels Lagos council election

Citing security report, the national body of the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) has cancelled this year’s election conducted by its Lagos State Council.

It was alleged that the Ministry of Information, which is a chapel in the body, was in favour of Leye Ajayi against Qasim Akinreti as the chairman.

A former secretary of the Lagos NUJ and national trustee of the union, Sylva Okereke, said: “What we agreed at the National Executive Council (NEC) was to carry out verification of membership in all the states, which we have started in the last one year. We have done the verification in Ondo, Ogun, Delta and other states and that’s what is obtainable everywhere. We did the same in Lagos. We verified members but unfortunately, we came today and someone is saying everybody that came must vote, where is it done? Even in the nation’s election, there are people that will go to register, but without voter’s card, they cannot vote. There is a procedure for every election and that is the procedure we are applying today.

“The present situation is that there is no election in Lagos and every other thing will be decided by the national body. “The security operatives said that if we should go ahead with the election, something else might happen.”