11th April, 2024
By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
The Rivers Government has intervened in the crisis rocking the State Chapter of the Nigerian Association of Women Journalists (NAWOJ).
PM NEWS can report that the Association has broken into two factions with one group loyal to NAWOJ Deputy National President, Dr. Mrs. Lilian Okonkwo-Ogabu while the other is loyal to the State Chairperson, Mrs. Suzan Serekara-Nwikhana.
At a meeting that was convened by the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Joseph Johnson, in his office in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, the warring factions of NAWOJ were charged to bury their differences.
Abraham Dukuma, the Technical Assistant on Press Relations to the Commissioner said this in a statement on Wednesday.
The commissioner, according to the statement, urged the warring groups to subsume their personal and sectional interests for the overall interest of the association.
Johnson told them to harmonise their positions and present consensus candidates for the vacant positions of Secretary and Treasurer.
Those positions, he noted, could not be filled during the last Triennial Delegates Conference of the State chapter due to the festering disagreement between the groups.
The conference had held on February 16 at the NUJ Secretariat Complex, Ernest Ikoli Press Centre Moscow road in Port Harcourt.
Johnson warned against factionalisation of NAWOJ in the state as the Rivers State Government will not deal with any faction.
The meeting was adjourned to next Tuesday to enable the groups to sort things out and come up with consensus candidates of their choice.
The focus was to make the April 13 Bye-Election a hitch-free.
The national leadership of NAWOJ has also formally requested the Rivers State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), to conduct the April 13, 2024 bye-election mandatorily.