Do Not Drag Journalists into Your Politics, Kogi NUJ Warns Politicians

Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja

Piqued by the contradictory reports in the media by politicians since the conduct of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship primary election, the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Kogi State chapter, has warned politician to stop impugning the integrity of journalists and various media houses.

While addressing journalists at NUJ Secretariat yesterday in Lokoja, the Chairman of the state council, Adeiza Momohjimoh, said: “They claimed no election was held anywhere, and that results were cooked and announcement made.

“I want to put it on record that our members (journalists) went to the field on the election day and monitored the process across the state.

“Audio, videos and pictorial shreds of evidence of the exercise were gotten from the field by journalists who monitored the process, and reports were sent to various media houses based on their observations on the field.

“Our members were fair enough to report places where voting started early and some other places where there were delays in the arrival of electoral materials and officials as it’s typical of Nigerian elections.

“Having monitored and reported the process in our media outlets, journalists converged on the collation centre at the state APC secretariat in Lokoja till 3 a.m. of last Saturday to also cover the collation and declaration of results.

“For any aggrieved politician to now asserts that all these sacrifices done by journalists amounted to colluding to declare concocted results, is not just only far from the truth but shows disrespect for journalists and their media organisations.”

He added: “For us at the state NUJ, we stand by the reports of journalists as published in their various media outlets on the conduct of the election.

“We want to use this medium to advise our politicians to use the prescribed ways of seeking redress whenever the outcome of elections is not favourable to them rather than resorting to blackmail and attempting to pull everything down.

“I wish to also urge all journalists in the state to continue to uphold the ethical standards of the profession throughout this election season and beyond.

“To the aspirants who lost at the primaries, let them know that journalists are not and will never be their problems as they go in search of solution to their problems.”