NUJ To Deregister Non-Functional Chapels

The Rivers State Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) says it would soon begin deregistration of chapels that no longer have functional organs in the state.
Chairman of the union in the state, Omoni Ayo-Tamuno, disclosed this in Port Harcourt while speaking at the annual retreat of the Today’s News Now (TNN) Newspaper and inauguration of its chapel’s new executives.
Ayo-Tamuno said, “There are many chapels in this council that have refused to conduct election for new officials to take over the running of affairs and we suspended them from attending the State Executive Council (SEC) meetings.
”It is like that action we took against them was not enough as many of them are yet to elect new officers, several months after the expiration of the tenure of the old executives. Very soon, we will start deregistering chapels that are no longer functional.”
He thanked the Editor-in-Chief of TNN, Ofonime Umanah, for organising annual training and retreat for the Editorial staff, and urged other media houses to emulate that.
”As a union, one thing we always emphasize on is that you don’t just recruit journalists, you have to pay them. We have some very big media houses but they don’t pay salaries; they give their reporters only ID cards and push them out.
”By pushing them out, they misbehave outside. So, we are calling on media houses in Rivers State and Nigeria in general, to please, pay journalists who are in their employ”, he said.