The Senior National Assistant Secretary of the NUJ, Mr Gbemiga Bamidele, in a statement he signed and made available to newsmen, also announced the dissolution of the Credentials Committee set to conduct the aborted election.
Bamidele said the union had appointed Mr Amos Ogunrinde of the FRCN to serve as the chairman of the committee while Alhaji Yaqoub Popoola of the Correspondents Chapel would serve as secretary.
Others are Mr Tunji Saliu of the Broadcasting Service of Ekiti State (BSES); Funke Rotimi of the Local Government Information and Samson Falowo as members.
“It should be noted that the members of the committee were selected based on individual merit and more importantly, in the interest of the Union,” the Senior National Assistant Secretary explained.
Bamidele said the appointment of the caretaker committee was “in line with Article 5dc of the NUJ Constitution” and that it would “run the affairs of the union within three months and to conduct a credible election.”
According to him, the appointment was a sequel to the disruption of the “state delegate’s conference at Press Centre, Ado Ekiti by some unruly members of the union,” pointing out that “the election had been stalemated.”
He said “at the state delegates conference were Vice President and Secretary Zone B; NUJ chairmen and secretaries from Oyo, Ogun and Osun States.”
Some members of the union had engaged in a free for all shortly after the commencement of the election, with some members destroying the ballot boxes and threw chairs at themselves.
They had earlier demobilised canopies erected outside the secretariat of the council while hurling abuses at one another, just as they defied police and other security agents deployed to maintain peace at the election.
A former Chairman of the Ekiti State council of NUJ, Tai Oguntayo, described the step by the national leadership of the union as “a welcome development,” saying “it will help in averting chaos in Ekiti NUJ.”
The aggrieved members, who booed the National Vice President, Zone B,
Mr Cosmas Oni who came to conduct the election, nearly attacked the NUJ representative and Chairman of NUJ in Oyo State, Mr Wumi Faniran, his Secretary, Mr Bola Ogunlayi and others from Ogun and Osun councils.
The election, which started around 11.17am was disrupted when the members of the BSES, who had commenced voting heard that 19 out of 73 names presented by the chapel were qualified to vote.
and then