By Our correspondent
The Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Anambra State Council, has suspended the state’s Chairman, Odogwu Emeka Odogwu, PhD, effective immediately.
This decision was made due to various infractions, including Odogwu’s failure to exhaust internal mechanisms before reporting union matters to the Directorate of State Service ( DSS)
According to a statement signed by Chapel Chairman Chief Chuks Ilozue and Secretary Lucy Osuizigbo, Odogwu’s suspension stems from his manipulation of records in the last Anambra State NUJ election where he allegedly.falsely claimed membership of the Correspondents’ Chapel and contested the Anambra NUJ council election without clearance from the chapel’s leadership.
The statement further accused Odogwu of “serious breach of trust and impunity,” particularly given his status as a lecturer at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, which renders him ineligible for membership in the Correspondents’ Chapel.
Additional infractions include Odogwu’s instruction to pay members’ check-off dues and practicing fees into a private account instead of the union’s account, deemed a “blatant disregard for rules.”
The Correspondents’ Chapel has suspended Odogwu pending his purging of these offenses.
Continuing, the chapel’s leadership clarified that they do not intend to join issues with the state council of the NUJ, but rather wish to set the record straight.
The chapel’s account of events highlights a series of disagreements and misunderstandings between Odogwu and the Correspondents’ Chapel, including issues surrounding check-off dues, practicing fees, and the chapel’s election.
The statement read in part,”Re: Disclaimer: Anambra State Correspondents’ Chapel Inaugurates New Leadership: Setting the Record Straight*
We do not intend to join issues with the state council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) knowing that we are still one family. We, however, wish to set the record straight.
1. On the tenure of Chief Chuks Ilozue: Chief Ilozue’s tenure elapsed on July 27, 2024 and in the Chapel’s monthly meeting of June 2024, he duly announced it whereupon a motion was moved and sustained that the incumbent administration should run for another term.
2. Knowing the stipulations of NUJ constitution that election observed by the state council must be held to make the leadership legitimate, the chapel wrote to NUJ in a letter dated June 3, 2024 informing it about the resolution.
3. Nevertheless, the Chapel once again wrote to NUJ forwarding list of members of the electoral/ Credentials committee for approval.
4. The NUJ wrote back to the Chapel in a letter dated July 10, 2024, approving the election but advising that members of the electoral/Credentials committee as well as contenders and voters must pay all dues prescribed in NUJ constitution.
5. However, just as the chapel prepared for the election, the chairman of NUJ, Emeka Odogwu in an event at UNIZIK took the chairman (Ilozue) to a corner and claimed that he sourced money privately and paid the check-off dues of the chapel and should be refunded.
6. Odogwu explained that that was the reason he asked the chairman to pay his own check-off dues and practicing fees into a private bank account which the chairman Ilozue refused.
7. This going back and forth continued until the chapel decided to hold its election on September 11, 2024.
8. Surprisingly, on September 9, 2024, chairman, Ilozue, got a call from the Department of State Security Service (DSS), asking that the election be put on hold, citing unresolved grey areas. Afterwards, Ilozue travelled.
9. On his return, he met with DSS officials who after discussion asked him to write to them stating when the Chapel’s election will hold.
10. The chapel wrote the DSS in a letter dated March 4, 2025, notifying them that the Chapel’s election would hold as Wednesday, March 19, 2025.
11. Again on March 17, 2025, DSS office called to inform the chairman, Ilozue that Odogwu was mounting pressure on it asking that the election should not hold.
12. In the light of this, the chapel observed that Odogwu deliberately wanted to cripple the chapel and, therefore, the chapel must fight for survival. A chapel that fails to hold meetings and other activities is on the brink of extinction.
THE ISSUE OF CHECK-OFF DUES AND PRACTICE FEES:
13. It should be noted that more than half of members of the Chapel have their check-off dues drawn by the union at source, while most of the remaining members already have their practicing fees paid to the chapel ahead of the election.
14. It is important to note, however, that Odogwu, who claimed to have settled the chapel’s debt to the council, did so without consulting the Chapel chairman about the payment proposal, the number of members paid for or the amount that was actually paid.
15. If Odogwu claimed to have cleared the Chapel’s debt, why were members disenfranchised during the last NUJ Anambra Council election?
16. These are seen as an afterthought, having failed to get chapel members to pay money accruable to the council into his private account or those of his lackeys.
17. It is for this dilemma of paying Council’s money into private account that the chapel has not been able to remit the practicing fees it has so far realized from members to the council.
18. In the final analysis the Chapel, at the March Monthly Congress, decided to affirm the leadership of Ilozue by returning all those who indicated interest and were cleared for election.
