The Nasarawa State Ministry of Information, Culture, and Tourism has allegedly hijacked the Nigeria Union of Journalists’ executive members in the just-concluded triennial election in the state.
The election, which was held on Monday in Lafia, saw the Information Chapel taking four positions out of the seven available positions.
Mrs Juliana Ofoku of the Information Chapel, who contested against Sunday John of the Correspondent Chapel and Samson Jonah of the Nasarawa Broadcasting Service (NBS) Chapel, was declared winner of the election.
The NUJ triennial election saw the Information Chapel taking the following positions: Chairmanship, Secretary, Treasurer and Auditor.
Some voters in the Ministry who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were coerced by Senior officials of the Ministry of Information to vote for Ofoku against their wishes.
They alleged that the ministry had threatened to sanction anyone who did not vote for its candidate, Juliana Ofoku, a deputy director of information in the Ministry, as chairman of NUJ.
According to the record, Information Chapel has the numerical strength of 98 members, above all other chapels, which reflected in the score in the election.
Announcing the election result, Dr Kalu Idika, the returning Officer and the Chairman of the Electoral Committee, said that Juliana scored 96 votes to defeat her opponents, Samson Jonah, NBS Chapel, who polled 89 votes and Sunday John, who garnered 61 votes.
The outcome of the election has generated mixed reactions amongst journalists from several chapels, who said her emergence as NUJ chairman did not reflect her acceptability in the Nasarawa Council.
However, the Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism, Dr Ibrahim Tanko, denied allegations of intimidation and interference in the NUJ election.
