The new Exco members.
By Marie-Therese Nanlong
Jos – The Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Plateau State Council now has a new set of officials who will pilot the affairs of the Chapel in the next three years.
The 52-member Chapel held an election on Thursday, July 27th and elected Polycarp Auta of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN as its Chairman, Agada Okopi of TVC as Vice Chairman, John Farinola of Channels TV as the Secretary while Marie-Therese Nanlong of Vanguard Newspapers and Lola Bello of Voice of Nigeria, VON emerged unopposed as Assistant Secretary and Financial Secretary respectively.
Auta emerged ahead of Musa Pam of New Telegraph and Douglas Francis of Arise TV who came second and third in the Chairmanship race having scored 17 and 12 votes respectively.
Okopi scored 32 votes and emerged ahead of Bilkisu Kambai of FRCN who scored 17 votes while Farinola emerged winner with 26 votes ahead of Jude Dangwam of Daily Asset who scored 20 votes.
The Chairperson of the Electoral Committee Tongna’aan Bawa announced the outcome of the keenly contested election in the presence of the Vice Chairman of the State Council, Ayuku Pwaspo who represented the Chairman, Paul Jatau at the event.
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The new officials were immediately inaugurated as they took the oath of office as administered by Barr. John Tsok, Esq admonished them to take the oath of office seriously and be guided by laid down rules in the discharge of their duties.
However, the posts of the Treasurer and the Auditor of the Chapel would be filled at a later time via a bye-election.
In his acceptance speech on behalf of the team, the Chairman, Polycarp Auta appreciated the electoral committee for a job well done, commended the resilience of all the contestants, offered a hand of friendship to those who did not win at this time and promised an open door leadership as he urged those with credible suggestions not to hesitate in offering them for the good of the Chapel.
Words of encouragement, advice and goodwill messages were received from the representatives of the other Chapels which make up the State Council with all of them urging the new executive members to be transparent and accommodating while in office.
