Okorocha’s N5m tears Imo NUJ apart

State chairman of Imo State council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Innocent Igwe, has received a no-confidence vote by majority of the state’s journalists, who have accused his state NUJ leadership of grossly mismanaging the N5 million given to the council by Governor Rochas Okorocha.

The no-confidence vote on the NUJ chairman is also a fall-out of a curious suspension order handed on the Correspondents’ Chapel by the Igwe-led State Working Committee (SWC) of the NUJ, following the former’s earlier complaint against the latter.

According to the Correspondents’ Chapel chairman, Athan Agbakwuru, it was absolutely laughable and preposterous that the Innocent Igwe-led Imo NUJ could summon a state working committee (SWC) to a meeting, without the invitation and presence of the Correspondents’ chapel, where they purportedly ordered the suspension of chapel; without even hearing from them.

More so, many media correspondents have accused the state NUJ chairman of prejudiced treatment to non-indigenes working and plying their trade in Imo State.

They condemned Igwe for alleged unwarranted warning of Governor Okorocha for inviting the members of the Correspondents’ Chapel to his (Okorocha’s) July 29 press briefing.

It emerged during the Imo NUJ Correspondents chapel’s extra-ordinary congress held on Friday in Owerri, where the members poured huge accusations against Igwe, in separate contributions, regretting that several instances abound where Igwe allegedly made anti-human comments and ill-treatment against the correspondents operating in Imo.

 “We are all Nigerian citizens, and professionals plying our trade in Imo; what is important is the credibility of the media organization you represent and the ethical conduct you exhibit in the field,” said Joe Nwachukwu, the Imo correspondent of Nigerian Tribune newspapers.

For George Onyejuuwa, Imo correspondent of Daily Sun newspapers, for the state to catch-up with the rest of Nigerians, people with mundane reasoning who see non-natives as object of hatred should be treated with utmost caution.

The chairman of the Correspondents’ Chapel, Agbakwuru had reported to members that the sidelining of the chapel by the Igwe-led Imo NUJ council was due to his (Igwe’s) negative mindset towards the chapel members.

“Even though the Correspondents’ chapel are largely constituted by non-natives in other states, the Imo State chapter is made up of more than 90 percent Imo indigenes, so I do not understand where this condemnable treatment comes from,” Agbakwuru noted.

Others who spoke include; the state correspondent of TV Continental, Saturday Ochia, National Mirror’s Chris Njoku, The Nation’s Ndidi Okodili and Everest Ezihe of the Authority newspaper, among others, frowning at the way the governor’s image was being attacked.

Meanwhile, the much-aggrieved journalists in Imo State have elected Amby Uneze, senior correspondent with ThisDay Newspapers, and Damian Duruihoma of The UNION Newspaper, as state chairman and secretary of the Imo NUJ.

Their emergence came last Friday during an emergency gathering of Imo based journalists at the City Chef, a popular restaurant in Owerri city center. The journalists further passed a vote-of-no-confidence on the former NUJ executive council led Innocent Igwe, over misconduct and mismanagement of funds.

Igwe could not respond to SMS to his two phone lines, seeking his reactions to questions by our correspondent to the unfolding drama in the state NUJ under his watch.